The sudden disclosure of oceans, islands, and continents,
covering one- third of the globe, worked a revolution in geographical ideas.
The earth was found to be far larger than men had supposed it to be, and the
imagination was stirred by the thought of other amazing discoveries which might
be made. From the sixteenth century to the twentieth the work of exploration
has continued, till now few regions of the world yet remain unmapped. At the
same time came acquaintance with many strange plants, animals, and peoples, and
so scientific knowledge replaced the quaint fancies of the Middle Ages.
EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES UPON RELIGION
The sixteenth century in Europe was the age of that revolt
against the Roman Church called the Protestant Reformation. During this period,
however, the Church won her victories over the American aborigines. What she
lost of territory, wealth, and influence in Europe was more than offset by what
she gained in America. Furthermore, the region now occupied by the United
States furnished in the seventeenth century an asylum from religious
persecution, as was proved when Puritans settled in New England, Roman
Catholics in Maryland, and Quakers in Pennsylvania. The vacant spaces of
America offered plenty of room for all who would worship God in their own way.
Thus the New World became a refuge from the intolerance of the Old.
