The Real Size of Africa

From childhood we are taught that the world looks like this. This is the Mercator world map which is used in institutions all over the world. It was created by a Flemish cartographer called Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It was mainly used to assist with navigation for European sailors. 

It is very difficult to get an accurate impression of a sphere shape onto a flat surface, and as a result there will inevitably be distortion on world maps. However, the distortion on this map is very drastic. What we have been taught about the size and land mass of various continents has been a total lie. 

The Gall-Peters map on the right is far more accurate in terms of the landmass of  countries. James Gall in 1855 created a more accurate map in terms of proportion in regards to land mass.  German historian Arno Peters also created a map in 1973 which matches that by James Gall. Hence why it is called the Gall-Peters map. What you will notice is that the countries/continents  in the North of the world is drastically smaller and those in the Southern hemisphere are drastically bigger. Most notably, Africa is double the size in real life than what is shown on the above Mercator Map. South America and Australia are also a lot bigger. You will notice that Europe is a lot smaller.

The question you may be asking is why the Mercator map created this drastic distortion which has been accepted worldwide. This answer is rooted in European imperialism. The size of countries are equated to power, and significance so the bigger a country looks, the more important it is. Hence why Europe's size was increased to look more powerful as this took place during the colonial era. Places like Africa was decreased in size to make it look less significant and less powerful.

The map below created by Visual Capitalist shows the true size of Africa. As you can see the whole of Europe, USA and a large portion of Asia can all fit inside Africa. It shows you how huge the continent of Africa is. The majority of the world's resources come from Africa, hence why Africa sustains the majority of the world.

Image from Visual Capitalist