How America became the most powerful country on Earth, in 11 maps. by Max Fisher. May 20, 2015, 12:10 PM UTC ... There was no reason that North America's borders had to become what they are.

The previous map, created in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator for navigational purposes, warps the sizes of continents and countries. Africa is three times bigger than North America ...

Although it distorts countries’ shapes, this way of drawing a world map avoids exaggerating the size of developed nations in Europe and North America and reducing the size of less developed ...

The result was my 1981 book, “The Nine Nations of North America.”The reader reaction was astonishing. This map – drawn to anticipate the news – revealed something much deeper.