Three hundred years after Columbus
gambled that he could find a west-
ward route from Europe to Asia,
explorers were still examining what he had
instead found. Searches for gold and religious
missions continued, but on a much smaller
scale. Expeditions were now just as likely to be
driven by desire for scientific knowledge. New
exploration was also driven by desire for polit-
ical and strategic superiority. The world had
changed since the days of the gold-hungry
speculators of Columbus’s second voyage,
who intended to return home to Europe as
rich men, thinking of their sojourn in the
Americas as a temporary adventure. New soci-
eties now existed in the Americas, with Old
World and New World civilizations interacting
in ways whose effects are felt even today.

DESCRIBING THE

KNOWN WORLD

Much of what was unknown or misunder-
stood about the Earth became clearer in the
centuries after Columbus’s voyages. Thanks to
increasingly accurate maps and the practical

experience of hundreds of mariners, the

Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were now geo-

graphical regions to be crossed, not under-

worlds filled with unknown terrors. Discovery

of the Gulf Stream revolutionized travel and

trade on the Atlantic Ocean. By 1800 ships

were much improved from the relatively small

caravels of Columbus’s time. Mariners still

depended primarily on wind power to reach

their destinations, but steam-and-sail combi-

nations were just starting to come into use.

Beginning in 1812, steamboats were operating

on the Mississippi River. The first transatlantic

steamship crossing of the Atlantic Ocean fol-

lowed, in 1819.

Some geographical myths such as the

Strait of Anian were nearly dead, although

19th-century British, American, and Norwe-

gian explorers would continue to search the

ice-choked northern limits of the Americas for

a route between the Atlantic and Pacific.

British explorer Sir Robert McClure’s 1854

expedition provided the final link to earlier

efforts to traverse the top of North America by

sea. The convenient midcontinent passage-

way that earlier explorers had hoped to find

169

The New World in 1800

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