Maps have often misrepresented the real size of developing nations, portraying them as smaller than more developed countries.
Cartographers in recent times and preceding centuries portrayed the world in a distorted fashion for many reasons. Whether due to cultural bias, practicality, or certain technicalities, maps have consistently been produced with a multitude of imperfections. Drawing up a map of the spherical world on a flat piece of paper remains challenging for modern-day cartographers, and the prejudices of old continue to find their way onto new maps.
Recent maps and developing countries
Bias against developed countries leaked into the education systems of both earlier and more modern eras. Thanks to the inherent flaws of producing a map of a sphere on a flat surface, maps from even as recently as forty to fifty years ago depict distorted land masses. Unfortunately, older philosophies of Eurocentrism leaked into more recent maps, especially in the school system.
This has led to previous colonies still being depicted with the inaccuracies of older times. In those older eras, schools hoped to encourage a sense of superiority to other nations, and developing countries would be presented as smaller than they actually were. Furthermore, such misrepresentations often also served the purpose of making maps easier to read for children.
Tactics such as these perpetuated misinformation and compounded the issue of bias in the map-making world, as is still apparent in cartography nowadays. Politics likewise play a significant role in current map flaws. To this day, nations bicker over border lines. As a result, the map of the world is in a state of constant flux. With continued movement on the global stage, this makes it hard for cartographers to accurately capture the world as it truly is on a map.
Perhaps the most preferred projection method of cartographers in medieval times was the Mercator Projection, invented by Flemish geographer and map-maker Gerardus Mercator in 1569. Functionality as a navigation tool was optimized, as shape was maintained, and directionality was hence accurate. However, it was insufficient when it came to size portrayal because countries closer to the poles appeared larger than those in equatorial regions.
These maps remained in use as recently as one hundred years ago, leading to recent issues with world maps. Mercator projection maps, among other types of depictions, were not exactly meant to favor proportionality but prioritized functionality.
As long as a map of the world helped maritime travelers get from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible, size was of little importance. These days, map-making methods such as the Gall-Peters projection aim to rectify these inaccuracies, but there are still issues. The fact that the Earth is spherical makes depictions of countries on maps complicated.
Old maps
Though not often the case, certain maps were utilized as propaganda tools in earlier eras. Those that served no functional purpose were occasionally used to align with contemporary political narratives. For instance, if a leader commissioned a cartographer to produce a map for public purposes, the map-maker may have been allowed some creative liberties.
The vast majority of the time, it was colonized nations that became the target of such propaganda. To illustrate dominance over what they deemed as subordinate regions, map-makers would portray developing countries as tiny in comparison to controlling regions. Countries that were enemies would be depicted as smaller as well, regardless of their economic status, exhibiting their supposed inferiority to the cartographer’s nation.
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Eurocentrism and cultural bias
One of the significant driving factors in the reason why developing nations were portrayed as smaller than they in fact were was the idea of Eurocentrism. Traditionally, according to Western views, Europe was portrayed as the most significant region on Earth, and this conceptualization then also found its way into modern maps.
Earlier European cartographers, especially those of the Age of Exploration and Colonization, placed great emphasis on their own lands and regarded the developing nations they colonized as inferior. Larger representations of Europe were symbolic of dominance over the rest of the world.
Biases ran even more deeply for certain old maps, as map-makers varied land sizes based on economic, political, and cultural priorities. Developing countries, often seen as less-than, were consistently portrayed as unrealistically small compared to their wealthier counterparts.
Technology and data limitations
Ancient cartographers could not rely on satellites that would scan the globe from orbit so as to produce maps of the highest degree of accuracy. Mapping relied on ground surveys and limited tools such as sextants. Developing nations were usually not as well explored, as map-makers scarcely left colonies. As a result, colonized regions were often depicted inaccurately.
A lack of exploration and therefore data of certain regions severely impaired the ability of cartographers of the era, though they were not necessarily conscious of this. Lack of information led to generalized assumptions or outright disregard of large chunks of land.
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