Western Asia · AZE

Azerbaijan

The story · 10 chapters

How it was drawn

Between the Caucasus and Iran, a land of Caucasian Albania and the Shirvanshahs that Arabs, Mongols, Persians and Ottomans fought over, taken by Russia in 1813 to 1828, independent in 1918 and again in 1991.

Play the story Take the first lesson

Through the ages

Rivals in history

The kingdoms, empires and states Azerbaijan fought or stood against, from the first to today.

Roman Republic66 BC to 65 BC
Chasing Mithridates, Pompey led Roman legions into the Caucasus and defeated the army of Caucasian Albania near the Abas river in 65 BC, though Rome never ruled the region directly.
Arab Caliphate642 to 837
Arab armies took the region in the 640s. Under the Abbasids, Babak Khorramdin led a long rebellion from the mountains of Azerbaijan from about 816 until his capture in 837.
Khazar Khaganate642 to 799
From north of the Caucasus, the Khazars fought the Arabs for the Caspian passes for over a century, raiding through Derbent into Caucasian Albania and beyond; in 730 they sacked Ardabil.
Mongol Empire1220 to 1335
Mongol armies sacked cities such as Ganja and Shamakhi in the 1220s and 1230s. The region then lay at the heart of the Ilkhanate until it broke up in the 1330s.
Timurid Empire1386 to 1405
Timur invaded the South Caucasus several times from 1386, sacking Tabriz and forcing the Shirvanshah Ibrahim I to submit as his vassal until Timur's death in 1405.
Safavid Persia1500 to 1538
Ismail I defeated and killed the Shirvanshah Farrukh Yassar in 1500, avenging his father's death. Shirvan survived as a vassal state until the Safavids annexed it in 1538.
Ottoman Empire1514 to 1639
After beating the Safavids at Chaldiran in 1514, the Ottomans occupied Tabriz several times and held Shirvan and Baku from 1578, until Shah Abbas I drove them out in the early 1600s.
Russian Empire1722 to 1828
Peter the Great seized Baku in 1723, and Russia came back in force after 1804. It conquered the khanates in two wars with Persia, sealed by the treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmenchay in 1828.
Republic of Armenia1918 to 1920
The new Azerbaijani and Armenian republics fought over Karabakh, Zangezur and Nakhchivan until the Red Army took over both in 1920.
Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union1920 to 1990
The Red Army ended Azerbaijan's first independence in April 1920. Seventy years later, on 20 January 1990, Soviet troops stormed Baku to crush the national movement, killing over a hundred civilians.
Republic of ArmeniaSince 1988Still open
War over Karabakh in 1988 to 1994 left Armenian forces holding it for 26 years. Azerbaijan won it back in 2020 and 2023. A peace treaty text was agreed in March 2025 but not yet signed.

Today

Azerbaijan now

Azerbaijan -- a secular nation with a majority-Turkic and majority-Shia Muslim population -- was briefly independent (from 1918 to 1920) following the collapse of the Russian Empire; it was subsequently incorporated into the Soviet Union for seven decades. Beginning in 1988, Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which was populated largely by ethnic Armenians but incorporated into Soviet Azerbaijan as an autonomous oblast in the early 1920s.

Capital: Baku
Government: presidential republic
Head of government: Ali Asadov
Head of state: Ilham Aliyev
Languages: Azerbaijani Sign Language, Azerbaijani
Area: 86,600 km²

Through time

Then and now

Population10.3 million2023 · 3.1 million in 1950
Life expectancy74.4 years2023 · 46.3 years in 1950
GDP per person$17,6822022
Living in cities59%2025 · 44% in 1950
Literacy100%2023
Political regimeElectoral autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
Military spending6.5% of GDP2025
War deathsNone2025

Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.

Relations

Close partners and tensions

Close partners

Turkiye
United States

Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 23 October 2026.

Rivals in history

The kingdoms, empires and states Azerbaijan fought or stood against, from the first to today.

Roman Republic66 BC to 65 BC

Chasing Mithridates, Pompey led Roman legions into the Caucasus and defeated the army of Caucasian Albania near the Abas river in 65 BC, though Rome never ruled the region directly.

Arab Caliphate642 to 837

Arab armies took the region in the 640s. Under the Abbasids, Babak Khorramdin led a long rebellion from the mountains of Azerbaijan from about 816 until his capture in 837.

Khazar Khaganate642 to 799

From north of the Caucasus, the Khazars fought the Arabs for the Caspian passes for over a century, raiding through Derbent into Caucasian Albania and beyond; in 730 they sacked Ardabil.

Mongol Empire1220 to 1335

Mongol armies sacked cities such as Ganja and Shamakhi in the 1220s and 1230s. The region then lay at the heart of the Ilkhanate until it broke up in the 1330s.

Timurid Empire1386 to 1405

Timur invaded the South Caucasus several times from 1386, sacking Tabriz and forcing the Shirvanshah Ibrahim I to submit as his vassal until Timur's death in 1405.

Safavid Persia1500 to 1538

Ismail I defeated and killed the Shirvanshah Farrukh Yassar in 1500, avenging his father's death. Shirvan survived as a vassal state until the Safavids annexed it in 1538.

Ottoman Empire1514 to 1639

After beating the Safavids at Chaldiran in 1514, the Ottomans occupied Tabriz several times and held Shirvan and Baku from 1578, until Shah Abbas I drove them out in the early 1600s.

Russian Empire1722 to 1828

Peter the Great seized Baku in 1723, and Russia came back in force after 1804. It conquered the khanates in two wars with Persia, sealed by the treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmenchay in 1828.

Republic of Armenia1918 to 1920

The new Azerbaijani and Armenian republics fought over Karabakh, Zangezur and Nakhchivan until the Red Army took over both in 1920.

Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union1920 to 1990

The Red Army ended Azerbaijan's first independence in April 1920. Seventy years later, on 20 January 1990, Soviet troops stormed Baku to crush the national movement, killing over a hundred civilians.

Republic of ArmeniaSince 1988Still open

War over Karabakh in 1988 to 1994 left Armenian forces holding it for 26 years. Azerbaijan won it back in 2020 and 2023. A peace treaty text was agreed in March 2025 but not yet signed.

Azerbaijan now

Capital

Baku

Government

presidential republic

Head of government

Ali Asadov

Head of state

Ilham Aliyev

Languages

Azerbaijani Sign Language, Azerbaijani

Area

86,600 km²

Then and now

Population10.3 million2023 · 3.1 million in 1950

Life expectancy74.4 years2023 · 46.3 years in 1950

GDP per person$17,6822022

Living in cities59%2025 · 44% in 1950

Literacy100%2023

Political regimeElectoral autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950

Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950

Military spending6.5% of GDP2025

War deathsNone2025