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Early maps were created on clay tablets in Mesopotamia. The first known map was a city plan of a Mesopotamian city named Nippur. https://school.eb.com/levels/middle/article/maps-and-globes/275680#332822-toc
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The ancient Babylonians created some of the first world maps. They were made on clay tablets and depicted the world in a flat, disk-shaped form. They only showed Babylonia and surrounding areas. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/404485001
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The Greeks explored a lot and expanded their knowledge of the world. Herodotus created a map containing much of Europe, Asia, and Africa. He also was one of the first to realize the Caspian Sea is inland. -
Aristotle writes six arguments supposed to prove the Earth to be spherical. Greek scholars around this time have also accepted the idea. https://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/map/110294#51765-toc
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Ptolemy writes the Guide to Geography around this time. He includes the longitude and latitude of over 8,000 places. It also taught how to construct a map. His maps were used for centuries later. -
During the Early Middle Ages, Islamic cartography improved much farther than the European did. Muhmmad al-Idrisi created one of the most detailed maps of medieval times, an upside-down map of Europe, Asia, and Africa, each almost whole. Additionally, their base 60 counting system led to the 360 degrees and more. -
This was the first major development in cartography since antiquity, it led to the popularity of maps and charts at sea, whereas it was not exploited much in China, where it was discovered. https://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/map/110294#51765-toc -
These navigational charts were created due to the invention of the compass. First produced in Genoa, they were typically maps of the Mediterranean Sea and included lines pointing in compass points to help sailors travel between two ports. They were said to mark the beginning of professional geography. https://www.britannica.com/technology/portolan-chart -
After Amerigo Vespucci voyaged around the Americas and brought some of the first geographical data from America back to Europe, a newly updated world map was constructed. It was also the first to refer to the New World as "America" after Amerigo Vespucci. https://www.loc.gov/collections/discovery-and-exploration/articles-and-essays/recognizing-and-naming-america/ -
Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer, discovers a way to make the surface area of the Earth stay somewhat accurate when made flat. He inflates the North and South to account for this but keeps the shape. This is especially useful for nautical maps because the longitude and latitude stay consistent. It is still often used today. This is also why Antarctica appears so big. https://www.britannica.com/science/Mercator-projection
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The International Geographic Congress decided to create a 1:1,000,000 scale map of the world. This was the first major world surveying project and would end in the 1980's. https://www.britannica.com/science/map/18th-century-to-the-present#ref506170
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Beginning with the Xerox PARC Map Viewer, highly detailed maps began to be added to the internet so anyone can view them. In 2005, Google acquired what they renamed to Google Earth. These online maps are far more detailed than paper maps as they can zoom in and out.
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A possible development of cartography could be to upload the entire world to the internet or similar, allowing users to go anywhere virtually.