Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861

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Goodrich, Samuel G. A Pictorial History of America; Embracing both the Northern and Southern Portions of the New World. Hartford: House and Brown, 1847.

Samuel G. Goodrich. A Pictorial History of America; Embracing both the Northern and Southern Portions of the New World. Hartford: House and Brown, 1847. Half-title page.

Writing the history of the Western Hemisphere, Goodrich saw “aborigines” as “receding and disappearing before the rapid progress of civilization” uniquely so in the United States.

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We shall close this description of the western continent with a brief view of its political divisions at the present day. The northern part of America belongs to Russia and Great Britain, so far as the right of discovery and the possession of a few settlements, thinly scattered over an icy and barren waste, afford those powers a claim to the property. These regions are peopled by wandering tribes of aborigines, but their numbers are few. The European settlements are insignificant, except those of the British on Hudson’s Bay. South of this country is the more populous district of British America, extending to the 42d degree of latitude, containing the nourishing colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The inhabitants are mostly of European descent, and the government is dependent on Great Britain. Next lies the republic of the United States, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from forty-eight degrees north, nearly to the tropic. The eastern half of this immense territory is occupied by the Anglo-American race; the western is still in possession of the aborigines, who however are daily receding and disappearing before the rapid progress of civilization. South of the United States is, first, the new republic of Texas, and next, the territory of Mexico, almost equal to the United States in extent, but less populous. This republic has a mixed population of Spanish and Indian descent, and large portions of the country are still in a savage state. Its limits extend to sixteen degrees of north latitude. The narrow portion of the continent which approaches the Isthmus of Darien is occupied by the republic of Guatemala, the inhabitants of which do not materially differ from those of Mexico. The West India islands, lying between North and South America, are colonies of several of the European powers, and are peopled by a mixture of the European and African race. One of these islands, Hayti, is independent, and has a population entirely African.