The European country will be smaller. But there is no need to rewrite the textbooks
The UN General Assembly voted to stop using maps that distort the real size of Africa. France will comply with the appeal.
On Friday, member states of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution by 164 to one promoting the use of maps that more accurately reflect the actual size of continents.
The UN voted for a true reflection of the world
The announcement states that this is the culmination of the campaign conducted by African countries against the use of Gerard Mercator’s projection from the 16th century. It is the most widely used map in the world and can be found in every school.
The Flemish cartographer developed his projection in 1569 to solve the practical problem of maritime navigation. Because the straight lines on his map correspond to constant compass directions, sailors could use it to plot their courses. However, maintaining the direction came at the expense of the land surface. Their shapes seem to get larger the further from the equator, causing Africa to lose size. Greenland may seem roughly comparable in size to this continent, even though Africa is about 14 times larger. The United States and Russia also seem larger visually.
An appeal, not an order. France “smaller”
The resolution does not prohibit the use of the Mercator projection or require its replacement.
On Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, just a few hours before the vote, announced that his ministry was giving up the so-called Mercator projection. France will now use the Eckert IV projection, which more accurately reflects the actual proportions of the continents.
“Changing the map, of course, does not change the world. But correcting the image that distorts it is an act of truth,” he emphasized during his speech at the Sorbonne.
Euronews has learned that the 16th century projection will be “gradually phased out” from all French public diplomacy websites.
Ukraine on its own behalf. This is about occupied territories
During the vote, the United States was the only one against, rejecting the initiative as part of a “radical ideological project.” Six countries – Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine – abstained from voting. Ukraine supported efforts to correct historical distortions about Africa and other parts of the global South, but objected to the way some maps using Equal Earth depicted its Russian-occupied territory.
