Why do world maps always show the Americas on the west and Asia on the east?

Question

If the world is round can we make any point of the world the center in maps? Or is there a specific reason all the world maps show the continents in the same orientation?

In: 6

Answer 1

There’s basically only one place where you can split the map and not have it cut through a major land mass (excluding Antarctica, which will always be split), and thats in the narrow area between Russia and Alaska going on down through the rest of the Pacific. If you split in the Atlantic you run into Greenland. Anywhere else your splitting countries and continents. The line through the Pacific has the least impact and allows all the major land masses to remain connected on the map.