taking this kind of perspective shows us that the division of the world into separate territorial unit, called state, is both artificial and arbitrary today it is generally accepted as the norm for political and geographical organization. yet this has not always been the case. looking at older maps shows a very different perspective. until relatively recently, large parts of the world were either unknow entirely (such as desert, mountain or polar regions) unknows to people in the parts, or know to the world drawn in europe, but the inland areas of islands or continents were largely undiscovered by europeans and unmapped by them.