The world map that we see each day is not true, all thanks to the European cartographer Geert de Kremer, more popular as Mercator, and his 16th century Mercator map.
According to a report published on CNN, the map is quite misleading, and quite one sided as well, showing the relative size of countries to the advantage of the West. For example the continent of Africa appears much smaller, and is somewhat similar in size to Canada on the map. But in reality, Africa which has an area of 30.2 million km2 could fit in three Canada that has an area of 9.0 million km2 quite easily.
The biggest manipulation is with Greenland, which looks almost the same size as the whole of Africa on the Mercator map. However, in reality the country is no bigger than the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is one of the over 50 countries in Africa.
"Somehow this map projection came to be used on most world maps, especially those produced for classrooms since the beginning of the 1900s," says Menno-Jan Kraak, President of the International Cartographic Association and professor of cartography at the University of Twente, Netherlands.
"Most of us have grown up with this world image," he added.
The map is also used politically as well, as it does make the enlarged countries seem more powerful.
"The term 'power of representation and representation of power' sums up quite well how maps and the rise of the Western nation-state system – and with that, empire and colonialism – are linked," says Marianne Franklin, professor of Global Media and Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London.
The debate for the map which shows countries of the world in their actual sizes is being carried out for years. However, the issue is there can be no perfect map, as Earth is sphere and it is almost impossible to chart it on a flat surface without errors.
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