Section: Social Complexity / Social Scale
Variable: Largest Communication Distance (All coded records)
Distance in kilometers between the capital and the furthest provincial capital. Use the figure for the most direct land and/or sea route that was available. As an alternative for prehistoric communities, measure the distance between largest quasi-capital and furthest village within the quasi-polity.  
Largest Communication Distance
#  Polity  Coded Value Tags Year(s) Edit Desc
1 Plantagenet England 650 Confident -
kilometers. A trip between London and Caerlaverock castle, just over the Scottish border was about 650 miles and a round trip could take twenty-five days. [1]

[1]: (Prestwich 2005: 25. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI.


2 Lombard Kingdom - Suspected -
kilometers.
3 Chaco Canyon - Late Bonito phase 249 Confident -
kilometers. “The largest great houses were concentrated in a “downtown” zone a little more than a mile wide at the center of Chaco Canyon. The scale of Chaco’s world was even larger, however, extending over much of the Four Corners region, as far away as 155 miles from Chaco Canyon.” [1]

[1]: (Lekson 2016: np) Lekson, Stephen H. 2016. “Chaco Canyon,” Colorado Encyclopedia, August 15, 2016, https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/chaco-canyon. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JMISYRGX


4 Tudor and Early Stuart England 901 Confident -
in kilometers. From London to the northernmost city of Inverness in Scotland is 901 kilometres. However, this is by modern roads so the route taken during this polity period is likely to have been much longer. Awaiting to see if further sources reveal the true distance. [1]

[1]: (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/London/Inverness/@56.0545667,-8.0421939,6.56z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x47d8a00baf21de75:0x52963a5addd52a99!2m2!1d-0.1275862!2d51.5072178!1m5!1m1!1s0x488f715b2d17de2b:0x624309d12e3ec43d!2m2!1d-4.224721!2d57.477773!3e0


5 Anglo-Saxon England II 612 Confident -
in kilometers. Approximate distance between the of Winchester and the former Northumbrian capital of Bamburgh. However, this is the most direct route by modern roads and so it is likely to have been longer.
6 Austria - Habsburg Dynasty II 1720 Confident -
kilometers. The furthest distance between two cities of the empire were between Antwerp (Belgium) and Belgrade (Serbia), however, this is via modern roads so this is likely to have been a greater distance during this period: “In the 1780s the Habsburg dynasty’s holdings stretched from today’s cities of Innsbruck in the west to Lviv in the east, from Milan and Florence on the Italian peninsula to Antwerp on the North Sea and Cluj in the Carpathian Mountains, from Prague in Bohemia to Vukovar and down to Belgrade in the south.” [1] From the capital of Vienna the furthest distance was to Bucharest which was 1070km or 42 days by marching. [2] “Large distances impeded strategic mobility between the Habsburg heartland and periphery. Depending on weather and road conditions, an infantry regiment could expect to march for three weeks from the imperial capital to the Ottoman frontier, two weeks to forward positions in Moravia, a month to the Italian frontier, and about as long to outposts in Poland (see figures 2.2– 2.3).” [3]

[1]: (Judson 2016: 19) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW

[2]: (Mitchell 2018: 24) Mitchell, A. Wess. 2018. The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TESFCKPW

[3]: (Mitchell 2018: 22) Mitchell, A. Wess. 2018. The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TESFCKPW


7 Khwarezmid Empire 2084 Confident -
in kilometers.From the capital of Samarqand to the southern-most city of Shiraz is 2,319 kilometres. However this is by modern roads found on google maps so it is likely that this journey would have been longer. [1]

[1]: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Shiraz,+Fars+Province,+Iran/Samarkand,+Uzbekistan/@28.9539435,53.7869575,6.67z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x3fb20d0c8c85f2e3:0x6d0c5b8aef6b4cf6!2m2!1d52.5835646!2d29.5926119!1m5!1m1!1s0x3f4d191960077df7:0x487636d9d13f2f57!2m2!1d66.9749731!2d39.627012!3e0


8 Hohokam Culture - Suspected -
in kilometers.
9 Golden Horde 300 Confident -
in kilometers.The distance between the city of Bulgar and the farthest east sites at the Alatyr and Issa rivers is 300km; more than one week of land travel. [1]

[1]: Khakimov and Favereau 2017: 311. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/QL8H3FN8


10 British Empire I 20776 Confident -
in kilometers. From 1840 the journey by sea from Plymouth, England to Wellington, New Zealand was 12,910 miles. [1]

[1]: (Porter 1999: 254) Porter, Andrew, ed. 1999. The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, vol. 3, 5 vols. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GTF9V4CG


11 Anglo-Saxon England I 612 Confident -
in kilometers. Approximate distance between the Wessex capital of Winchester and the Northumbrian capital of Bamburgh. However, this is the most direct route by modern roads and so it is likely to have been longer.
12 British Empire IIIIIIIIII 20776 Confident -
in kilometers. The journey by sea from Plymouth, England to Wellington, New Zealand was 12,910 miles. [1]

[1]: (Porter 1999: 254. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GTF9V4CG.


13 Russian Empire, Romanov Dynasty II 9600 Confident Expert -
From Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok the distance was approximately 9,600 kilometers . [1]

[1]: Simon Franklin and Katherine Bowers, eds., Information and Empire: Mechanisms of Communication in Russia, 1600-1850 (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2017). Zotero link: Z6FKYETN


14 Soviet Union 9100 Confident -
The largest communication distance between Moscow and Vladivostok, its furthest provincial capital, is approximately 9,100 kilometers. [1]

[1]: “Расстояние между Москвой и Владивостоком,” accessed December 26, 2023 Zotero link: MHKMDHEM


15 Russian Empire, Romanov Dynasty I 2350 Confident Expert -
Tobolsk became an important administrative center for Siberia after it was annexed by Russia in the late 16th century. it was one of the furthest cities from Moscow, the capital of Russia until 1712. [1]

[1]: “Расстояние Москва – Тобольск: 2359 Км.” Zotero link: WFKZD4I6


16 Holy Roman Empire - Ottonian-Salian Dynasty 1683 Confident -
in kilometers.From Hamburg in the north of Germany to Rome, which was at the edge of the HRE during this period, is 1,683km. However this is by modern roads so it was likely to be much further in the tenth-to-fourteenth centuries.
17 Qin Empire 1100 Confident -
-
18 Macedonian Empire 4500 Confident -
-
19 Almoravids - Undecided -
-
20 Chu Kingdom - Spring and Autumn Period 800 Confident -
-
21 Chu Kingdom - Warring States Period 800 Confident -
-
22 Kalachuris of Kalyani 634 Confident -
-
23 Late Greater Coclé [13 to 18] Confident -
-
24 Mauretania 800 Confident -
-
25 Median Persian Empire [1,500 to 2,000] Confident -
-
26 Monagrillo - Suspected -
-
27 Monte Alban V Early Postclassic - Suspected -
-
28 Monte Alban V Late Postclassic - Suspected -
-
29 Ottoman Empire Late Period - Undecided -
-
30 Sharqi 645 Confident -
-
31 Songhai Empire 220 Confident -
-
32 * Egypt - Classic Old Kingdom [1,000 to 1,100] Confident -
- From Memphis (29°50′41″N 31°15′3″E) south along the Nile to Buhen (21°55′N 31°17′E), a fort established during the Fourth Dynasty. [Malek_Shaw 2000, p. 107] Buhen is the southermost settlement shown on Malek's map of the Old Kingdom. [Malek_Shaw 2000, p. 91] The fort at Mirgissa (Iken) was further south, but was not established until the Middle Kingdom. [Smith 1991, p. 107] Roughly calculated using the Google Maps "measure distance" tool and dragging points to follow the course of the Nile. EDIT