Why a network, not a tree
Mathematics does not branch like a strict tree. Fields hybridize: algebraic geometry, analytic number theory and algebraic topology each have several parents. Ideas converge: Newton and Leibniz both found calculus; Bolyai and Lobachevsky both found non-Euclidean geometry. And lineages go dormant and revive: invariant theory went quiet after Hilbert and returned as geometric invariant theory.
So each node is a field or idea placed at the date it took recognizable form, and each edge says “descends from”. Time runs left to right; the axis is compressed for the ancient world. Rows group fields into broad clades, which are a convenience, not a claim of ancestry.
Click a field to see its description, key results, and its full ancestry highlighted. The data lives in data/nodes.json; corrections and additions are welcome.