In recent decades, designers, mathematicians, and cartographers have tried to redesign the world as we know it
Except for flat-earthers, there is a more or less generalized consensus on Earth's shape. It's a geoid—an imperfect sphere—and an ellipsoid, slightly elliptical and flattened at the poles. Representing these features on a two-dimensional plane is, in itself, a considerable challenge. Doing so reliably is a problem that has puzzled cartographers, geographers, and illustrators for centuries.
But some have decided to get to work and created different representations of the world that, with greater or lesser success, help us locate continents, islands, oceans, and countries. More often than not, they do so serving specific political and social interests, too.
1. The Mercator projection
The most famous planisphere, whose variants continue to be used, for example, by Google Maps, is the one devised by Gerhard Kramer (in Latin, Gerardus Mercator). He was born in what is now called Belgium during the 16th century and introduced the so-called Mercator projection in 1569. In addition to the remarkable wealth of detail in the continents' design, this projection has a characteristic that has contributed decisively to its adoption in many countries: it places Europe at the center of the world and presents it larger than it really is.
