Each image below represents an ‘arc’ — a historical pattern of power.
The arcs appear in rough chronological order, from the oldest structures of power to the most recent.
Patriarchy / Gender exclusion Ancient–present
Caste system (India focus) Ancient–present
The Inquisition 12th–19th c.
Medici banking dynasty 1400s–1700s
Indigenous dispossession in the Americas Late 1400s–1900s
Fugger Family of Augsburg 1500s–1600s
British East India Company 1600s–1800s
Dutch VOC (East India Company) 1600s–1800s
Plantation slavery and racial caste in the Caribbean and Brazil 1700s–1800s
Boss Tweed / Tammany Hall 1860s–1870s
Racial segregation in the U.S. South 1870s–1960s
John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil) 1880s–1910s
King Leopold II (Congo Free State) 1885–1908
Andrew Carnegie (U.S. Steel) 1880s–1910s
Cecil Rhodes (settler oligarchy) 1890s–1980
Henry Clay Frick (coal/steel) 1890s–1910s
British suffragette suppression 1900s–1910s
Stolen Generations policies 1910s–1970s
Benito Mussolini 1920s–1940s
Joseph Stalin 1920s–1953
Adolf Hitler 1930s–1940s
Apartheid South Africa 1948–1994
Ngô Đình Diệm regime 1963
Ferdinand Marcos 1965–1986
India’s Emergency (Indira Gandhi) 1975–1977
Bill Gates 1980s–present
Colombian paramilitaries / elites 1980s–2000s
State and paramilitary land repression (Chiapas) 1990s–present
Silvio Berlusconi 1990s–2010s
Vladimir Putin 2000s–present
Mark Zuckerberg 2000s–present
Viktor Orbán 2010–present
Elon Musk 2010s–present
Xi Jinping 2012–present
Narendra Modi 2014–present
Donald Trump 2025–present
For a brief overview of the Cityscape, see How it Works.
For a detailed description of the Arcs, take A Guided Tour.
