Using recently digitalised ship logbooks from 1750 to 1850 this map shows the most frequently travelled routes by British, Dutch and Spanish merchant navies.

100 years of shipping video

The same data has also been painstakingly mapped out in this video showing which routes were active at which times.

Video courtesy of Ben Schmidt who provides some interesting analysis in his blog.

You can find the original dataset here. Images designed by Valentina D’Efilippo.