This map is a modern version of the map drawn by
Mercator, a sixteenth-century cartographer, at the height of the
European era of exploration into the 'New World'. He drew it for
sailors navigating the northern seas, so it was designed to show
compass bearings as straight lines, useful for sea navigation. But
in transferring shapes from the globe to the map, north and south
distances were distorted. These distortions are more exaggerated
the further you look from the equator.
The Mercator map therefore distorts surface area very
significantly, giving countries of the North about twice the apparent
total area of countries in the South. Some Mercator maps show the
Equator two-thirds of the way down the map, rather than in the middle,
and since the distortion is particularly great between 60 and 90
degrees north and south latitudes, Antarctica is often left off
altogether.
These distortions can have several effects on us as
we look at the map. For example, it can suggest that countries of
the North, which are richer, are more important than low-income
countries of the South. The UK and Europe are shown at the top of
the map. This can reinforce the view these are the most important
places in the world, and can encourage an 'Anglo-centric' or 'Euro-centric'
viewpoint.
The Mercator projection was used in most school atlases
until recently, and many classrooms around the UK still have Mercator
wall maps. For years it was seen as the one correct way of portraying
the world. As this resource shows, there is not one 'correct' world
view, but many.
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