In Bonn, in the spring of 1973, a man showed a new map of the world. His name was Arno Peters. He was 56 years old. He was a historian, a person who studies the past. He said he was sorry to shock the reporters, but these were the real sizes of the land. On his map, Europe was small. Europe was not in the middle. Africa was very big. Peters said his map showed the Earth in an honest way.
Peters gave examples. On old maps, the Soviet Union looked bigger than Africa. But Africa is 30 million square kilometres. The Soviet Union was 22.4 million. Scandinavia looked as big as India. But India is three times bigger.
The old map came from Gerardus Mercator. He was born in 1512. In 1569 he made this map for ships. On his map, lines for ships are straight. Ships still use this. But on his map, land far from the middle of the Earth looks too big. Greenland looks very big.
In 2017 a map maker in the United States started a new map. His name is Tom Patterson. He worked with Bojan Šavrič and Bernhard Jenny. They called the map Equal Earth. In August 2018 they put the map on the internet. People can take it for free.
In September 2026 the United Nations voted. 164 countries said yes to maps like Equal Earth. Only the United States said no. Six countries did not vote.
Africa is about 14 times bigger than Greenland. It is not the same size.
Patterson said students who use the Mercator map see the sizes of countries in a very wrong way.