Where would we be without them?
And how would we even know?
They can anchor us in a place or help us get somewhere else.
asserted
us → know → place
They can show us global political realities via the drawing of contested country borders.
asserted
They → show → borders
We take it as truth that not only does X mark the spot, it shows us the size of the spot, what the spot’s name is and how the spot compares with other spots.
asserted
spot → take → spots
But while the physical geography of our world can be set in stone, the reality is that maps are not.
asserted
maps → set → stone
There are choices involved in everything from which countries are centered to their size relative to each other and what the objects on the map are called.
asserted
objects → be → map
The choices create the perspective and they affect the way we assume the world looks.
asserted
world → create → way
That was evident this month at the United Nations when a General Assembly vote endorsed a map with a different way of looking at the world than has more commonly been used.
asserted
vote → endorse → world
This map showed Africa more accurately and larger.
asserted
map → show → Africa
The vote was 164 countries in favor of the change, six abstaining and one — the United States — against.
asserted
one → abstain → change
In August, President Donald Trump signed an order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as a trade war with Canada continues.
asserted
war → sign → Canada
In January 2025, he signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
asserted
he → sign → America
Some tech companies such as Google and Apple followed along with the changes for U.S. users.
asserted
companies → follow → users
MapQuest did not, nor
asserted
MapQuest → do → ?
“To the extent that maps come to shape the way that we think about different places and people who inhabit them, maps structure our politics in ways that then have consequences,” said Alex Moulton, assistant professor in the geography and environmental science department at Hunter College.
asserted
Moulton → come → College
Distortions are inevitable
There is never going to be a flat map that is 100% accurate to the physical geography it is showing.
asserted
it → be → geography
That is because taking something in 3D, like Earth, and drawing it in flat 2D as a map is always going to result in distortions.
asserted
taking → take → distortions
What mapmakers do is decide which distortions they are going to allow, depending on a map’s purpose.
asserted
they → decide → purpose
Those decisions can be invisible to the general public, who see the map as absolute reality and a foundation for how they think of the world.
asserted
they → see → world
It was created in Europe as a navigational tool, with the longitudes and latitudes structured in such a way that ships could get from one place to another.
uncertain
ships → create → another
In order to do that, though, the size of the world’s land masses had to be altered.
asserted
size → have → masses
Those nearer the poles, like Greenland, appear bigger.
asserted
Those → appear → Greenland
Those nearer the equator, like the countries of Africa, were made smaller.
asserted
Those → make → Africa
It was that distortion that pushed the efforts leading to the U.N.‘s vote in support of the Equal Earth projection map, which supporters say is more accurate in terms of size.
asserted
supporters → push → size
Why does that matter?
asserted
that → matter → ?
Because the way we see things can impact how we relate to them, with political and economic implications, said Nerve Macaspac, a political geographer and assistant professor at Queens College.
asserted
Macaspac → see → College
“If you see Africa as a smaller land mass, there’s a political implication to that.
asserted
you → see → that
If we see it larger or it’s in true size, then there is economic and political implications to it,” Macaspac said.
asserted
Macaspac → see → it
“What’s being foregrounded and what’s been hidden or obscured or neglected or ignored or reduced?”
Maps as moments
What is included on maps can also make them snapshots of a particular period.
asserted
them → foreground → period
What was considered the “United States” would look different depending on what point in its 250-year history was being put to paper.
asserted
point → consider → paper
Maps “really are a time capsule of how that cartographer saw the world,” said Tony Rodono, owner of The Map Shop, based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
asserted
Rodono → see → Charlotte
“That was their understanding of world at the particular time with everything that surrounding that person’s human experience.”
asserted
That → surround → experience
Trump’s orders to change the names of bodies of water are examples of this as well, as his order renaming the mountain in Alaska that had been called Denali during the Obama administration back to its previous moniker of Mount McKinley.
asserted
that → change → McKinley
It’s the tallest peak in North America.
asserted
It → ’ → America
“Map-making is world-making,” Moulton said.
asserted
Moulton → say → ?
“It is apprehending our world as we observe it and then putting that down as the truth of those things and that is an inherently political practice.”
asserted
that → apprehend → things
The Aporia
