Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861

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Mitchell, S. Augustus. A General View of the World, Comprising a Physical, Political, and Statistical Account of its Grand Divisions, America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceanica, with their Empires, Kingdoms, Republics, Principalities, &c.... Philadelphia: Published by Thomas, Cowperthwait and Co, for James A. Bill, 1847.

S. Augustus Mitchell. A General View of the World, Comprising a Physical, Political, and Statistical Account of its Grand Divisions, America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceanica, with their Empires, Kingdoms, Republics, Principalities, &c.... Philadelphia: Published by Thomas, Cowperthwait and Co., for James A. Bill, 1847. Title page.

Temporarily deferring to Europe, Mitchell anticipated a future in which the Western Hemisphere would come to surpass “the greatest monarchies of the Old World.”

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The World. The Would comprises five great divisions, viz: America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceanica: the second, third, and fourth of them, comprised all that was known to the ancients: hence, this part of the earth is frequently called the Old World, and also the Eastern Continent; and America, by way of distinction, is often called the New World, and likewise the Western Continent.

America is a vast continent, entirely separated from the other parts of the earth. It comprises two great divisions, and was discovered by Christopher Columbus, in the year 1492.

Though America is inferior either to Europe, Asia, or Africa in population, and particularly to the former in knowledge, refinement, and importance; yet its vast extent, great natural capacities, and the freedom of its political institutions, will, in time, enable the nations of the Western Continent, not only to equal, but probably much to surpass, the greatest monarchies of the Old World.

Europe, though the smallest of the three great divisions of the Eastern Continent, is the first in importance, the most thickly peopled, and the best cultivated. In modern times it has been the point from which civilization and knowledge have been extended to other nations, and its emigrants have peopled all the civilized countries of the other parts of the world.

Though Europe was the latest portion of the Eastern Continent that received the light of civilization, yet it must now be considered as the centre of refinement and learning. The most useful inventions in the arts, the finest productions of genius, and the improvement of all the sciences, belong to the people of this region.

Asia is the largest and most populous of the great divisions of the globe. It has been the seat of some of the most powerful empires of ancient times, and the theatre of many of the most interesting events recorded in history.

It was here our first parents were created, and from this quarter the descendants of Noah peopled the world after the flood. It was also the birth-place of our Saviour, the scene of his miracles and death, and the field on which the Apostles first published salvation to man.

In Asia all has continued fixed as if by enchantment. We see empires whose origin is lost in the unknown beginnings of time; laws, institutions, and ideas, which have remained unaltered during thousands of years, exhibiting a picture of the domestic life of man, as it existed in the earliest ages.

Africa is a vast peninsula, joined to Asia by the isthmus of Suez. It comprises nearly one-fourth part of the land surface of the globe, being about one-third less than Asia, and three times larger than Europe.

This quarter of the world is almost wholly in a state of barbarism, yet in ancient times its northern countries were among the most enlightened in the world, and still have written languages. They are now, however, among the lowest of the half-civilized nations.

Africa is the hottest region of the globe, and lies mostly within the tropics. The influence of a tropical climate extends even to those portions which are in the temperate zones.

Oceanica is the last established and least important of the great divisions of the earth. It comprises a vast assemblage of islands, situated partly to the south of Asia, and partly in the wide Pacific between Asia and America.

The discovery of this quarter of the globe commenced after America and the Pacific Ocean were known to Europeans. The interior of some of its larger islands are among the least known portions of the earth, and many of the inhabitants are still in a state of the most savage and degrading rudeness.