Gilpin, William:

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NOTES ON COLORADO; AND ITS INSCRIPTION IN THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT. A lecture given before the British Association of Science at Liverpool on September 26, 1870, in which William Gilpin lays out a grand and elaborate theory of geopolitics, making the claim that America – and Denver in particular – is destined to become the center of world civilization. Gilpin (1813–94) was a land speculator, politician, soldier, author, and – in the words of historian J. Christopher Schnell – "one of the leading advocates of Western expansion." Gilpin's first western experience was as a member of the Fremont expedition of 1843. He thereafter became a tireless advocate for the economic potential of the Rockies, especially Colorado, where he became the first territorial governor in 1861. In the present lecture, Gilpin articulates a vision of America's manifest destiny: "The American realizes that 'Progress is God.' He clearly recognizes and accepts the continental mission of his country and his people. His faith is impregnably fortified by this vision of power, unity, and forward motion." Inspired by the theories of the German naturalist and philosopher Alexander von Humboldt, Gilpin indulges in sweeping statements and generalizations of geographical determinism, claiming for instance that the "stumpendous longitudinal Cordillera" of the Rocky Mountains "segregates the physical globe into two hemispheres. These two hemispheres present the basin of the Atlantic towa

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