Discovery of the Americas, 1492-1800

and studied, the actual geographical shape of
the Americas—and much of the rest of the
world—could now be seen, with details and
an exactitude the navigators of Columbus’s
time would have marveled over.

SPAIN FADES FROM

THE SCENE
The opening of the Americas produced a new
understanding of the world, but the civiliza-
tions involved in the initial encounters under-
went profound changes between Columbus’s
time and 1800. Within 50 years of Europeans’

arrival, the two most powerful empires in the

Americas, those of the Aztec and the Inca, had

been smashed and replaced by Spanish con-

trol. By 1800, however, Spanish power in the

Americas was weakening fast. The Spanish

economy was a shambles. A yellow fever epi-

demic swept the country that year, killing

thousands of people. Mountains of gold and

silver imported from Mexico and Peru had

been wasted fighting a succession of wars in

Europe. After ceding western Florida to

Britain and gaining the Louisiana Territory

from France in 1763, the latter region was lost

when French leader Napoleon Bonaparte

Located in San Francisco, this mission was built in the 1780s, shortly after San Francisco was founded.

(Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HABS, CAL,38-SANFRA,1-15])

The New World in 1800 B 173