Africa has long been represented as smaller than its real size in maps, which are largely based on an ancient projection.

The Togo-sponsored resolution was backed by 164 nations - the US the only nation to vote against it.

Nearly every voting country recently approved of a new way to depict the world.

It is the culmination of a recent campaign led by African countries and advocacy groups to reject 'cartographic colonialism'.

The new map makes Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Oceania larger than the traditional Mercator projection.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The African Union has endorsed the #CorrectTheMap Campaign, a call for the United Nations and the wider global community to use a ...

Mercator maps distorted Africa for centuries. A U.N. vote asks the world to see the continent closer to its actual size. The U.S. was lone 'no' vote.

The U.S. was the only nation to oppose a new world map that more accurately reflects the size of Africa and other regions.

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