Alternative World Maps

As one helpful tool for our examination of developing countries, it may be useful to have a resource that pulls together key maps for different regions and countries. This also turns out to be an instructive exercise, because "maps matter" -- geography is to some extent in the eye of the beholder. Indeed, in an important sense, there is no such thing as an objective "map."

THE WORLD THROUGH THE MERCATOR LENS

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One part of the ideological baggage that most First Worlders have carried around since childhood is the so-called "Mercator Projection," one of the first efforts by mapmakers to make our 3D world collapse onto a 2D surface.

That original projection has been with us since the 1569, when it was first produced by a Flemish cartographer named Gerhard Kremer (Mercatur was the Latinized version of his name.) It was designed, not to indicate the relative size of continents and countries, but to help ships understand where they would end up if they held a steady course ("rhumb line") on a given latitude or longitude.

From the standpoint of comparative geography, the result is severe distortion -- for example, Africa, with 12 million square milies of land mass, ends up the same size as Greenland, with just .8 million square miles, and close in size to the former Soviet Union, with 8.7 million square miles, and China, with just 3.7 million square miles. The "North's" 19 million square miles, is the same size as the South's 39 million square miles, while Europe's 3. 8 million square miles ends up the same size as South America's 6.9 million.

Whether or not any of this was responsible for fundamental ideological biases is doubtful, but it is interesting, after decades of Mercaturial distortion, to suddenly see the world through another set of lens.

THE PETERS PROJECTION (click to enlarge)

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The so-called "Peters Projection," after Dr. Arno Peters, was introduced in 1974. It has the nice property that areas are shown in proportion to their actual size. This makes it more appropriate for geopolitical analysis, but worthless for navigation.

THE HOBO-DYER PROJECTION (click to enlarge)

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There are endless variations on the efforts to trade off spacial accuracy against navigational and aesthetic objectives. Here's a third, more recent alternative, which also preserves the equal area property of the Peters map, but claims to be more visually appealing. Note the diminutive size of North Amerca, Russia, China and Australia in all these equal area projections, relative to Mercatur, and the enormous size of Africa.

THE POPULATION SIZE MAP (click to enlarge)

Our last world map proportions the size of countries according to their relative populations. From the standpoint of geopolitics, living conditions, the potential impact of climate change by region, and many other issues, this may be the most interesting map of all -- especially since, over the next 50 years, barring a war or epidemic, Asia's population share, relative to Europe, Russia, and Africa in particular, is likely to expand even further.

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(c) James S. Henry, Submerging Markets, 2003.

Comments

[S Casey]

Dear Mr Henry

There's also the Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion Map

http://www.bfi.org/map.htm#define

which the bfi (Buckminster Fuller Institute) describes as:

"the only flat map of the entire surface of the earth that reveals our planet as it really is an island in one ocean without any visible distortion of the relative shapes and sizes of the land areas, and without splitting any continents",

while adding:

"Traditional world maps reinforce the elements that separate humanity and fail to highlight the patterns and relationships emerging from the ever evolving and accelerating process of globalization."

He worked on it from 1927-54, and very nice it is too.

Best wishes
S Casey
(PS I like your site a lot.)

[anna]

does anybody know where I can get a "fourth world theory" map? it is one that shows indigenous nations instead of states.

[Bob Abramms]

Your page of ALTERNATIVE WORLD MAPS features three of our copyrighted maps. We would appreciate the courtesy of a web link (on each image) to our home page at www.odt.org and the inclusion of our copyright line "(c) www.odt.org". FYI - the population map you have is out of date. An upgraded image is at www.odt.org/pop which is based on year 2005 statistics.
---- Please call me if you have any questions 800-736-1293. Regards, Bob Abramms

[bob]

oLVGuk hi nice site thx http://peace.com see you

[bob]

oLVGuk hi nice site thx http://peace.com see you

[bob]

oLVGuk hi nice site thx http://peace.com see you