The Peters Projection Equal-Area Map is an effort to portray earth's land masses in accurate relative size, even at the expense (to some extent) of their actual shapes. Its developer, German historian, Arno Peters, hoped, with this 1974 publication, that many of the populations of the so-called developing countries (generally people of color) would take pride in seeing their relative sizes dramatically and accurately increased when compared with the projected representations on the maps to which we all have become accustomed.
Cartographers, mathematicians and others in a host of various other disciplines throughout the world have long been aware of the impossibility of accurately projecting a sphere (such as the earth) on a flat surface (such as wall maps, book atlases, pocket maps, etc.). A map cannot be exact in the measurement of surface area and angles at the same time. It may adhere to equivalency, preserving size proportions; or, it may adhere to conformity, thus preserving shapes at the expense of size proportion. The two are mutually exclusive. In short, some aspect(s) of the earth's spherical reality must be compromised for our convenience; otherwise, we might be confined to carryimg around globes on our person for quick reference access to geographical, navigational, relative size, etc. information regarding our planet.
Each map maker must decide which aspect(s) of the spherical reality he or she will render on a flat map accurately and which aspect(s) will be compromised. These decisions are generally made in accordance with the intended use to which the map will be put. 
Most of us are generally familiar with the maps we've seen all of our lives in classrooms, home atlases and as backdrops for television newsrooms. Generally these maps are replicas of, or similar to, the navigational map created by Gerhard Krämer (known by his Latin name, Mercator) in 1569.  This navigational tool, as European ships were sailing the world, met with virtually no controversy. Worldwide human communities for four hundred years have been educated and influenced by the Mercator map, designed for navigational accuracy, but with severe distortions of the relative sizes of the earth's land masses. 

Es schon fast nicht mehr anständig, auf einer nicht-flächentreuen Karte der Welt, die Landmassen Europas und Südamerikas vergleichen zu wollen. Aber Ideolog(i)en sind einfach blind inbezug auf die Wahrheit und fallen leicht - gedanken-los - der Propaganda anheim.

For example, the area of Europe is 3.8 million square miles, while the area of South America is 6.9 million square miles; however, the Mercator map shows Europe as larger than South America. Mercator !positioned the equator 2/3 of the way down, which resulted in a disproportionately large projection of the Northern Hemisphere, to the size advantage of Europe. 

Auch das Schomburg-Centre betet A.Peters - ohne ihm zu Verfügung stehende Nachprüfung - nach: Mercator !positioned the equator 2/3 of the way down .[[ linking to ]] Es ist durchaus unfair - um nicht zu sagen: moralisch verwerflich - , für den unbefangenen Betrachter die nördliche Hemisphäre auf einer heutigen Mercator-Karte / Peters-Karte bis zum 85. Breitengrad auszudehnen, die südliche dagegen auf der Mercator-Karte allein bis zum 60., auf der Peters-Karte aber bis zum 80. Breitengrad: Daß dann der Äquator als weltweite Bezugslinie den Mercator-Entwurf gewissermaßen "drittelt", die Mitte des Entwurfs nach Mitteleuropa verlegt wird, ist offenbar argumentativer Vorsatz. . Auf der Karte von 1569 stellt Mercator die ihm bekannte Welt - von der Nordpolarkarte einmal abgesehen - zwischen 66.5° S und 79.5° N dar.

In a time of growing European world domination, Mercator !placed his native Germany at the Center of his navigational map.
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Was einfach nicht wahr ist - außer man hält sich an die wissentlich falsche 2/3-Aussage von Peters:

"Mercators Mittelpunkt" liegt unter den Canaren in (0°O|23.5°N). 
und auf einer "anständigen" Mercator-Karte heute in (0°|0°):

So einfach ist wahrhaft ideologischer Schein zu ent-larven.

As European colonialism dominated the world for ?centuries, educators and publishers in Europe and North America perpetuated the use of  Mercator-based maps. lt was not until the release of the Peters map that the perspectives of people of color became a major issue in academia, among cartographers and, to some extent, in populär culture.
Although it is not the first equal-area map produced - James Gall of Scotland, for example, produced an extraordinarily similar map, the Gall Orthographie Equal-Area Projection, in 1855 [! korrekt: 1885, vgl.w.o.] - the Peters Projection Equal-Area Map is probably the most controversial map ever. A couple of hours devoted to research in The New York Public Library's Map Division will reveal that numerous cartographers have emphasized the map's distortion of shapes, among other things. But, undoubtedly the controversy was also substantially rooted in Amo Peters' political assertions that accompanied the release of his map. In answer to a question as to why a historian would undertake such a challenging cartographic problem, Peters replied: 

I ran into this problem as I prepared an atlas to syncronoptic world history. Because my world history brings to mind people of the Third World (Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Indians, Chinese) as the originators of the culture of Man, I could not use a world map like the Mercator

Wer wäre denn auch - außer A. Peters - auf die Idee verfallen, eine winkeltreue Abbildung der Erde als eine für die beabsichtigten Zwecke geeignete anzusehen?

[which] shows the countries of these people in a size much too small for their importance in history.

Despite the controversy, the Peters Projection Equal-Area Map has been supported and adopted by the United Nations (UNICEF, UNIDEP and other UN units) and the World Council of Churches; additionally, a growing number of educators have embraced and adopted the Peters Projection Equal-Area Map.

• Mit der Anerkennung der flächentreuen Peters-Karte sollte aber - wie gezeigt - nicht der Peterssche Ideologieverdacht gegen Gerhard Mercator und sein kartographisches Lebenswerk kolportiert werden.

Peters brauchte einen Popanzen: zu dem haben er und seine - bedingungslosen - Nachbeter Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594) hochstilisiert.