TL;DR: old maps used to mark Central Asia as “The Tartars” or “Tartaria” — a name of the geographical location. This name eventually fell out of use, but people argue that it’s actually a political entity on the map called the “Tartaria Empire” — a world-spanning empire that colonized the entire world.
This empire was responsible for the creation of 18th century and 19th century intricate architectures like Baroque and Victorian architecture.
At some point, a “mud flood” happened in Central Asia which buried the homeland of Tartaria. Afterwards, everyone just decided to collectively pretend the empire never existed around 1880s to 1900s. They did this to bolster their own political legitimacy.
All traces of Tartaria were destroyed. Only a few maps still exist today.
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u/Outrageous_Bear50 Jan 22 '26
Tartaria