The American Founders'Perception and Imagination of"the World"
In the modern globalization movement that first emerged in the Atlantic world,the European powers'continuous progress in navigation,trade,missionary work,conquest,and colonization was positively correlated with the knowledge about the outside world they had obtained.The United States quickly became part of this trend after independence;but as a republic,the American founders cherished a significantly different view of the world compared with that of the Europeans in the same period.Based on their geographical knowledge,they adopted an"exceptionalist"way of thinking,grading the various regions and countries of the world from the angle of value and morality.They classified the planet as two starkly contrasting worlds,i.e."the world of freemen"and"the world of slaves."Meanwhile they deemed their country as the only"asylum of liberty"in the world,hoping to engage with the unfree and non-republican world through neutrality and trade,in order to pursue wealth and knowledge,building the United States into a free and strong nation that would lead other countries'people to get rid of slavery and to become prosperous.However,the historical realities would prove that the world they envisioned was no other than Utopia.
Idea of the WorldGeographical KnowledgeLibertySlaveryTrade