Essay about Effect of Geography on English Colonies in America

Beginning in 1607, when ambitious English colonists settled in Jamestown, and continuing until the last of the thirteen colonies was established; geography was a substantial factor in the development of colonial America. The crops that essentially saved the colonists lives, such as tobacco, rice, and indigo, wouldn’t have grown without a certain type and amount of soil to grow properly. Also, the Appalachian Mountains and the dense forests provided a barrier for the colonists, preventing them from going too far west right away, and causing the colonies to form in the arrangement they did. Finally, the population was the most dense in middle colonies, such as New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania partly because of the mild

The New England colonies vs. the Chesapeake colonies had many differences in there economical make-up, as far as their economic activities and the diversity of the economies. The New England society had a very diverse economy as far as their activities go. Some economic activities included small farms, livestock,

The three colonies all wanted to make money but they had to go about it in different ways. This was mainly due to what they had available. The New England Colonies were mainly agricultural farmers. With all the water reservoirs like Cape Cod there were plenty of fish so lots of people became fishermen. There were a lot of lumberjacks to cut down trees and export them to England. The Middle Colonies were extremely different because they set up extensive cosmopolitan cities reminiscent of New York. They had many specialists like doctors, lawyers, accountants, and teachers. They traded a lot with in North America and occasionally overseas. The Southern Colonies primarily depended on cotton and tobacco plantations. As the plantations grew they had to employ black slaves. The plantations were fully self contained with their own blacksmith, teachers and professionals. So there were no big cities or towns. The main plantations traded directly with Europe via the Mississippi. The three colonies all made money differently with their diverse professions and traders.

By the 1700’s, The northern and souther colonies had evolved into two distinct societies. This is so because the northern and southern colonies had different environments and also different reasons of settlement. The North was established for mainly religious freedom, while on the other hand, the south had been established for economic freedom. The climate also affected the different turnout of the north and the south. The north was much colder and so their soil was not beneficial for farming, so the people of the north found other jobs, while on the other side, the south had rich soil and the colonists there used that idea to set up huge plantations and farms.

1. There were several main differences among the British colonial regions. The New England colonies being colonized mainly for religion while the Middle colonies found wealth through industry, whereas the Southern colonies sought more trade and wealth opportunities through colonization. Economically, the New England colonies did not have trade as their primary focused, but still were involved in the processes of fishing, lumbering, and trapping, the Middle colonies found their wealth in lumbering and shipbuilding; the Southern colonies sought to grow and trade cash crops for wealth. The Northern colonies composed of [Separatist] Pilgrims, Puritans, and Quakers had more religious reasons for being founded, but not limited to refuge from religious persecution, and a holy society or “city upon a hill.” The Northern colonies were also religiously self-governing; one example being the Mayflower Compact, while the South had regular laws instituted. Demographically, the colonies started with an overwhelming white population over the blacks, but as the tobacco industry grew and slavery became an increasing practice, blacks began to outnumber the white population.

Because of the differences in geography and climate in each region, each colony had a set of jobs that worked best with their conditions. The New England Colonies relied mainly on fishing, whaling, ship making and selling lumber. This is because the soil in the New England Colonies was poor and rocky, which made it difficult to farm. However, the New England Colonies were right by the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, so they whaled and fished easily. Once they discovered how much money could be made off of slave-trading, and it soon became one of the largest slave-trading centers in the world. They also had many dense forests, so they builts ships out of the lumber and also sold it to England and the other colonies. The area still has many forests, but there are way less dense than they were back in the colonial days.

When the English settled into the New World, they were split up into two sections, the Chesapeake region and the New England region. Although the English settled both, the two regions were severely different from each other when they were brought about. The New England and Chesapeake colonies differed in three ways: their reason for venturing over, economy, and population. These major differences were what shaped our nation today and what will continue shaping our nation in the future.

In the 1700’s the English colonies had gained their footing each different than the other. There developed a few different region in the colonies. One, the New England region was the northern colonies and another being the Chesapeake which include Virginia and Maryland. The main reasons why the two groups of colonies developed very differently are geography, their relationship with the natives and motives for coming to the New World. The Chesapeake and New England colonies were separated by hundreds of miles.

New England lacked a significant social gap. Mostly everyone was middle class with the exception of a very few. While New England was able to have some type of agriculture, they relied mostly on industries such as shoemakers and blacksmiths and trade. Factors such as population and resources allowed them to develop rapidly. This lead to large cities for this era and a healthy economy.

In 1620, the people of the New England villages were a close and religious community. There was no religious freedom in the northern colonies. There were small farms, fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding. In the 1630, the shipbuilding industry grew because Europeans began to buy the ships from this part of the region. In 1636, New England developed as a trading town. In the northern colonies the farming was really difficult. There are rocky coastlines along the Atlantic and many bays, lakes, wetlands, and rivers support the fishing industry. New England also have the Appalachian Mountains and Connecticut River Valley. The mountains and rocky soil and trees were thick and crops could not grow. However the geography of North consisted were subsequently

The New England towns developed in a unique way, Usually, a cluster of farmhouse and a meeting house were built around a common-- shared land where public activities took place. Because people lived together in small towns, a diverse economy developed.

The northern colonies weren’t suited for farming like the other colonies were. The northern colonies had thin rocky soil, were heavily forested, and had a cooler climate which limited the growing season. They didn’t really depend much on the land itself. They were

New England’s development based on geography can be shown through their lack of fertile farming soil. Unlike the south, New England contained rocky soil, mountains, and plenty of rivers. Slavery was tried in order to find the same success as in the south, but it ultimately failed because of the poor soil and small farms. The weather in New England was also drastically different than the south. Winter was long and freezing while summer was mild and short. The lack of proper farming soil and the weather extremes caused the colonies to be less diverse than the other sections since immigrants didn’t want to move to New England. Forced to find new ways to thrive, they turned to trade and natural resources. To illustrate, the colonies were abundant

Although it was an important aspect of colonial life, geography was not the largest factor in the development of colonial America in the 1600s. Settlements were established where colonists landed, which obviously varied from voyage to voyage. One thing that geography did influence, however, were the imports and exports of any given settlement. For example, Chesapeake was the colonies’ largest center for tobacco production due to the rich soil and abundance of

New england greatly benefited from urbanization, due to its location. It was near the ocean; giving way to shipping and trading industries booming with work being generous due to its great supply of timber for shipbuilding. New england was a center for commerce, fisheries, and shipbuilding. The area rapidly grew as well from favorable weather conditions for lowering disease. Since it had such accessibility granted by the sea ports, this helped to increase the population of the area greatly from immigrants.The middle colonies were founded by many different ethnic and religious groups, aided by policies of tolerance. This greatly increased the want for residence there, not to mention the These were a sort of mixture, culturally, between their