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Illustrated with six full-page maps, including a frontispiece of the world, and a map of contemporary North America (the other four maps are of Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America). Lacking a fold-out map of the United States. Bound in contemporary brown calf, with stitching to inside of boards, black ink lettering to spine, three 19th century "Foster Manton Library" ink stamps (on verso of frontispiece, verso of map facing p. 172, and p. 141), and some notes in ink to front free endpaper and title page. Very good, with toning to spine, small split to top of front spine joint, heavy scuffing to binding, large chip to top left of rear board, small chip to top right corner of front board, light spotting and staining to pages, and some pages with minor nicks or creases. Overall, a unique look at the state of the world - particularly the United States just 20 years after its birth - at the close of the 18th century. ESTC W28476. In the "Outlines" section at the beginning of Universal Geography Made Easy, Charles Smith (1768 - 1808) claims that he wrote the book "to give young minds a general idea of Geography … It contains a comprehensive view of the several parts of the globe, and a general description of the countries, belonging to each part, alphabetically arranged." The "North America" section (pp. 125 -171) contains a wide variety of information related to the continent, such as lists of major quadrupeds, birds, and fish, overviews of major lakes, mountains, rivers, agriculture, commerce, government, religions, territories, individual states, and more. Smith writes, "North America is divided into three grand divisions, viz. British dominions, at the north; Spanish possessions, at the south; and the United States of America in the middle" (p. 125). In 1795, Spain owned much of today's United States, including California, Louisiana (west of the Mississippi to the Rockies), Texas, Florida, and New Mexico. At that time, the states in the United States numbered only fifteen. In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase would roughly double the size of the United States. On the map of North America (facing p. 125), the modern-day United States is divided up into four broad sections - California, "Mexico or New Spain," Louisiana, and the United States - with some specific states labeled as well, like New York and Philadelphia.
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