Geography is no longer studied as thoroughly in most schools as it once was. In many places it is lumped into general social studies classes or offered as an elective course for high school students. The result is that fewer and fewer people have a true understanding of the world.
A map of the world is more than just a collection of countries, continents, and bodies of water. It shows the relationships between geographical and political entities. The importance of a tiny nation like Kuwait becomes clear when it is seen in the context of its neighbors in the Middle East. The rugged individualism of the people of Australia is easier to understand when its isolation from England and rough terrain is reproduced on a map.
Because there are so many different ways of looking at the world, cartography has adapted the most basic map into countless variations. It is possible to get usa maps that depict geographic features or political boundaries. There are topographical maps, climate maps, satellite maps, demographic maps, and specialized USA maps that show natural resources, transportation routes — virtually anything can be plotted in relationship to physical space has been plotted in some form of map or other.