What Is Gall-Peters Map Projection?

The Gall-Peters map, in particular, has an interesting history. 

It was originally presented at a scientific convention in 1855 by John Gall, an English astronomer. Despite a lackluster reception at the convention, Gall published a paper on the map 30 years later, in 1885. It did not gain much support from scientists, navigators or cartographers at the time, because when maps were primarily used for navigation there was no need for such a distorted map. Over 100 years later, in the 1970s, German activist and historian Arno Peters brought it back to life. Peters believed he had created a completely new way to look at the world, but cartographers recognized it as incredibly similar to the Gall map. The projection was given both names — Gall-Peters — and began to draw criticism from geographers around the world.

Peters was a brilliant marketer, however, so he was not discouraged.

Instead of taking his map to scientists and cartographers, he recognized that it could be valuable to aid organizations that focused on equatorial areas. These aid organizations had long struggled with finding maps to use that did not further hurt their cause. After all, in the Mercator projection the poles and equator are distorted so that equatorial areas appear much smaller than they are in real life, and the poles are presented as much bigger. This is because the Mercator map was created for navigation, and by preserving shape over area, travel routes could be planned easily and accurately from thousands of miles away. However, as a consequence of the distortion, Africa and South America are displayed much, much smaller than they really are, and the mid-latitudes (Europe, America) are hardly distorted at all.

When administrators at Boston Public Schools talk about decolonizing their curriculum, they’re referring to the fact that the Mercator map, though originally used for navigation and created more than 400 years ago, has taken on a larger meaning that has led people to assume that Africa and South America are small, weak continents, while Europe and the North America are large, powerful land masses.

Aid organizations saw a map that projected the world in a vastly different way, with Africa and South America displayed true to size, and they knew this would help their cause and could become an excellent marketing tool. Peters was thrilled.

The Gall-Peters map is still used by some organizations, including the Vatican (and its African missions) and UNESCO