[Leif_-]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
But the EASIEST thing Ive found is a blur.

You might want to look at adding a bump-map to that as well. (To do that manually in Gimp copy the original map to a new layer, and create an additional empty layer. Fill the empty layer with plasma (Filter -> Render -> Clouds -> Plasma), then select the copy of the map, blur it and choose Filter -> Map -> Bump Map and use the plasma layer as the bump map.)

Next, select by colour to select the borders and capital-dots on the original map and cut these parts away from the copy. Delete the plasma map.)