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@DaWoDerPfeffer @libroraptor @gregsbrain @conradhackett Wasn't Mercator's popularity due to it making all the key trading ports more easily visible? That will have fuelled colonialist racism to an extent, but that was never what it was actually *for*
@kennykravitz @DaWoDerPfeffer@mastodon.social @libroraptor @gregsbrain @conradhackett
"Wasn't Mercator's popularity due to it making all the key trading ports more easily visible?"
No, not at all. Rather, the #Mercator map was just the simplest mathematical #mapprojection that allowed any sailor to use the easiest form of #navigation possible, in pre-modern times.
Most folks weren't shown how this map was supposed to be used, so it often gets misinterpreted by moderns
https://kaiserscience.wordpress.com/earth-science/maps/mercator-maps-use-and-criticism/