History of the four-color problem

Abstract

The Four Color Problem deals with determining the minimum numbers of colors needed to color a map of real or imaginary countries, so that those with common borders have different colors. In 1852, Francis Guthrie conjectured that this minimum number was four. Only more than one hundred years later, in 1976, it was actually possible to prove that Guthrie’s conjecture was correct, resulting in the so-called Four Color Theorem. This work starts by making a presentation of the problem and a brief history of its development. Some concepts and properties of graph theory are also presented, as well as how Graph Theory is related to the Four Color Problem.