The widely-used Mercator map is often criticised for visually exaggerating and centralising Western nations.

The United Nations has voted to adopt a new world map that more accurately reflects countries’ true sizes, a resolution sponsored by African states to right a centuries-old wrong.

The “Correct the Map” resolution adopted by the UN general assembly on Friday aims to address a colonial-era injustice that has visually shrunk Africa for 450 years, shaping how the continent is perceived in media, education and policy around the world.

The resolution, put forward by African Union (AU) member states and the Bahamas, was backed by a vote of 164-1 with six abstentions.

Togo led the AU’s campaign to limit use of the widely-used Mercator map.

Developed in the 16th century by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, the projection distorts the relative size of land masses by expanding those nearer the poles. For instance, it makes Greenland appear roughly the same size as Africa, even though Africa is about 14 times larger.

Some critics of the Mercator map believe it remains widely used because it visually exaggerates and centralises Western nations, perpetuating ideas of European superiority.

“A fair world begins with a fair map,” Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told the Reuters news agency ahead of Friday’s vote.

The resolution promotes the Equal Earth projection, which more accurately portrays the size of the continents.

The resolution is not legally binding and it “in no way challenges the use of the Mercator projection for maritime and aerial navigation, for which it remains fully suited,” the Togolese ministry said in a statement.

The United States – the only country to vote against the resolution – said it promoted an “ideological agenda” and was a distraction from the “genuine problems of international peace, prosperity or good relations”.

Moky Makura, executive director of the advocacy organisation Africa No Filter that’s involved in “Correct the World” map campaign, hailed the vote, saying “now the real work begins”.

“We want to see accurate maps in schools, textbooks, newsrooms, businesses and on the digital platforms billions of people use every day,” Makura said in a statement.

“If we got something as basic as Africa’s size wrong for this long, what else about Africa have we simply accepted without questioning? Africa doesn’t need to be made bigger. It needs to be seen accurately,” she added.

‘Distortions eventually take root in perceptions’

Ahead of the vote, France, who co-sponsored the resolution, announced that it planned to abandon the Mercator map.

The foreign ministry “will abandon the Mercator projection in favour of map representations tailored to specific uses, more faithful to actual surface areas and in line with the recommendations of cartographers and scientists”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

“The United States, Russia and China take on a disproportionate visual prominence compared to Africa, Latin America or southeast Asia,” Barrot said, adding that “distortions eventually take root in perceptions” and that “the time has come to correct them.”

The Mercator map remains widely used in classrooms, but Togo hopes to change its school geography materials by the end of the year, Dussey told Reuters.

Togo will press other governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to move away from the Mercator map in favour of the Equal Earth one, Dussey said.

Dussey linked the campaign to adopt the map to wider African efforts to confront colonial-era legacies, while saying it was not an attack on Europe or any other civilisation.

The Mercator map’s widespread use is a consequence of colonisation, he said.

“The world is changing. Africa also is changing.”