This dataset describes the historical land use change of nearly 300 years. The test of historical data is an important step to verify the comprehensive model of global environmental change. Due to the long-term lag of climate and biogeochemical systems, the goal of these models should be to simulate land use dynamics for a long time, that is, to span decades to hundreds of years. The development of such models requires an understanding of past and current trends and is therefore strongly dependent on data. To this end, a historical database of global environment, HYDE, has been developed. The historical statistical list of agricultural land (census data, tax records, land surveys, etc.) and different spatial analysis techniques are used to create a geographically clear land-use change dataset with a fixed time interval. This dataset can be used to test a comprehensive model of global change. During this period, historical data on a continental scale were used.