Maps! Maps! Maps!

Maps convey so much about the world. They have the power to shape our world view. Through maps we gain a sense of the world and where things are. Like most Americans I have a vague sense of where everything is, but I would have trouble telling you where every country on the map was in relation to other countries. 

Looking at the maps above, they are both maps of the modern world (the peters map is lacking South Sudan, but the idea is there), yet they are very different. The Peters map (bottom) shows an accurate area of each country projection of the world, where as the Mercator map shows the world as countries fit together with each other. For more information and a brief history of maps: click here.

There are inherent problems with both of these types of maps. 

First of all, neither map shows a true depiction of the world. The Mercator map shows where countries are in the world, communicating a warped view of what the word really looks like. The countries further away from the equator are warped to be larger than they actually are. Greenland for example looks larger than all of South America, when, in reality, it is much much smaller.

The Peters map doesn't show an accurate depiction of the world either because while all the countries have the appropriate area, the Peters map doesn't show their correct spacing in the world. All the countries are lengthened near the equator and shortened near the poles. It's just overall not a great picture of what the world is. 

Maps have to power to shape our world view, and it is important to remember that flat maps are not the truth and there is going to be something warped about them. Cartographers have the responsibility to create the best possible representation of a round world on a flat surface, and that is a difficult task. It is very impressive that the earliest world maps (including the Americas) date back to the early 1500s.