When was the official world map recognized, showing the Americas on the left, etc. Were there ever efforts to institute a different version, with China or Saudi Arabia (or another country) as the center?
When was the official world map recognized, showing the Americas on the left, etc.
For starters: there is no "official world map", as such. However, the commonly seen map that you've described, with the Americas on the left and Asia/Oceania on the right, is centred on the Greenwich Prime Meridian - which is official.
The Greenwich Prime Meridian was agreed on by representatives of 26 countries at the International Meridian Conference in 1884. During the 1800s, with the advent of railways and the expansion of international marine trade, the issue of time became a problem. (You can read the 'Time zones and time differences' section of the Popular Questions pages for more information about the connection between railways and standardised time zones.) So, long story short, the then-President of the USA requested a conference be held "for the purpose of fixing upon a meridian proper to be employed as a common zero of longitude and standard of time-reckoning throughout the globe". At this conference, after a lot of discussion and negotiation, the meridian that runs through the Observatory of Greenwich, outside London, was decided to become the Prime Meridian at 0° longitude.
It has since become common to create world maps which centre on this Greenwich Prime Meridian, but these are not "official" world maps.
There's a whole page devoted to 'Maps' in the Popular Questions pages here, including a section on the 'History of Cartography, which might give you some insights.