Interactive History/Campaign Mapping

[bhanain03]

The world building project I'm currently working on has quite an expansive history of well over 2,000 years. During this time many changes occured, including, but not limited to, the rise and fall of kingdoms and empires; expansions and colonizations; border clashes; rebellions; the founding of independent city-states; civil wars; the building and destruction of cities, walls, monuments, and fortresses; and some minor explorations.

I have the physical world mapped out, minor details still pending revision and addition, but the foundation is there. I've made dozens of maps of the territorial claims in different time periods but these are usually seperated by several centuries and only show the most significant shifts. So leafing through them doesn't quite do justice to the ebb and flow of the historic timeline insofar as continuity.

What I'm looking to create is a progressive map, showing historic changes in real-time (sped up, of course). Unfortunately I'm not quite sure how to go about doing this. What specific software would be involved is the best place for me to start. I know using Flash is probably going to be necessary but I'm confident I can wiggle with that as I already know some of the basics of the software. Other additional tools or resources, though, I'm drawing a blank.

Does anyone have any suggestions or help they could offer me in this? Has anybody had experience with this type of idea or tackled this type of 'video-mapping' scenario before? I am greatful for any and all feedback on this one.

A fair example of what I'm talking about can be found here: Maps of War