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The now widely used Mercator map was created in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator.<\/p>\n
Its main purpose was to help European sailors navigate the oceans, as cartography Professor James Cheshire at University College London explained.<\/p>\n
“He wanted a straight line to be drawn on a map to look like a straight line in reality if you followed a compass bearing,” he told the BBC. “That was what it was intended to do, and that’s what it does brilliantly well.”<\/p>\n
To keep those angles correct on a flat map, Mercator had to stretch the grid lines wider as they moved away from the equator toward the poles.<\/p>\n
His map accommodates for the curvature of the Earth by making countries near the equator seem much smaller than they are and countries nearer the poles appear stretched.<\/p>\n
The distortion is a result of it being impossible to accurately represent the surface of a globe on a two-dimensional chart.<\/p>\n
More than 450 years on, Mercator’s creation is still the basis for many of the maps we see in classrooms, on TV and online, including Google Maps.<\/p>\n
But critics of the Mercator map say there is a psychological effect to viewing some places as smaller than they actually are and others as larger, as we instinctively view bigger things as more important.<\/p>\n
For Kenyan geographer Kioko Muendo, this has implicitly downplayed Africa’s vast resources, population and investment opportunities.<\/p>\n
“Maps are more than just guides for travellers – they shape how regions are perceived politically and economically,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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