CShapes
Description
CShapes is a new dataset that provides historical maps of state boundaries and capitals in the post-World War II period. The dataset is coded according to both the Correlates of War and the Gleditsch and Ward (1999) state lists, and is therefore compatible with a great number of existing databases in the discipline. Provided in a geographic data format, CShapes can be used directly with standard GIS software, allowing a wide range of spatial computations. In addition, we supply a CShapes package for the R statistical toolkit. This package enables researchers without GIS skills to perform various useful operations on the GIS maps.
Version
The current version of GIS dataset and R package is 0.2-4 (June 9, 2010). See the change log.
R PackageClick here to find out how to install the cshapes R package and use it for computing country distance matrices etc. |
GIS Vector DatasetClick here to access the dataset in shapefile format for use with GIS software, or for animation with Google Earth. |
Citation
If you use CShapes for your own work, please cite
Weidmann, Nils B., Doreen Kuse, and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch. 2010. The Geography of the International System: The CShapes Dataset. International Interactions 36 (1).
Collaborators
Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, University of Essex
Doreen Kuse, Dresden Technical University