Geography's impact on colonial America

Before the foundation of the United States in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies were colonies of the Kingdom of Great Britain on eastern shore of North America. Its geographic location and climate affected its economy.

New England Colonies

British colonies

The New England Colonies comprised Massachusetts Colony, Rhode Island Colony, Connecticut Colony, and New Hampshire Colony. The region was settled by people from England in 1620. In the 18th century, New England (fought in four) French and Indian Wars. The British defeated the French and their native Allies in North America, securing their settlements. These colonies mainly provided fish and whale products, and lumber. They imported agricultural products from other regions because the climate is not suitable for growing crops like wheat, but corn, beans, and pumpkins grew well.

The geology of New England includes many mountains, and it is thick with trees and rivers. The forest provided large amount of lumber for New England and led them to specialize in the shipbuilding industry. However, the poor rocky landscape was unsuitable for cereal crops, so they were imported from the other colonies. Originally this region had fertile soil, but during the Ice Age, large glaciers scraped away the fertile soil and moved it south, leaving a rocky landscape that was not suitable for farming.

Climate

As the New England region were located further north, they have longer winters and the coldest weather among the three regions. Summer is mild and short. The cold weather caused less disease compared to the warmer regions.

People

When English people made the Northern colonies they named their region "New England" for their homeland. Famous people from the region included John Winthrop from Massachusetts, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson from Rhode Island, Thomas Hooker from Connecticut, and John Mason from New Hampshire. Residents in the northern region were mostly Puritans. That was the only religion throughout the New England Colonies, because the Puritans wanted it that way. There was no religious freedom in the region.

Trade goods

Since the soil and weather in New England was not suitable for farming, few people did that. Instead they imported crops from other regions or even other countries. In return, they would trade products they had to other countries. These products included fish, whale products, ships, timber products. Also, they traded furs and livestock products made from animals living in the surrounding forests.

Using the large numbers of trees in the forest,people from New England worked at shipbuilding. People in New England cut down trees for lumber to build ships. They would then use them for fishing and hunting whales. That is also a factor that affected what goods people in New England would trade. There was much trade between New England and other regions or countries such as England. New England would export resources like fish and lumber to Africa, England, and the West Indies. Then from Africa, New England would receive hardworking slaves in return.

Middle Colonies

Middle Colonies, North America

The middle colonies were the Delaware Colony, the New Jersey Colony, the New York Colony, and the Pennsylvania Colony. Their climate helped them become the 'breadbasket' of British North America. Arable land was plentiful and the soil was fertile. The excellent natural harbors helped the middle colonies become traders among the colonies. Due in part to immigration from foreign (Mainland Europe) countries, the people were ethnically and religiously diverse.

Geography

These colonies included New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. New York is dominated by farms, forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes. Manhattan Island is a well known location of New York, originally called New Amsterdam. Lake Erie is the great lake that New York shares a border with. The Appalachian Mountains run through the middle of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is bordered by New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio. This region also shares a border with Lake Erie. Many rivers run through the state including the Ohio and Delaware Rivers. On the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, Delaware is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay, as well as by the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The area of Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York is known as the Highlands. The Atlantic Coastal Plain is a region along the middle colonies primarily composed of marsh, rivers and swampland.

Climate

Since the colonies were further south, the days were longer with a lot of sunlight and plenty of rain. The climate in the coastal region of the middle colonies is moderate year round. Average monthly temperatures range from 76 to 32 degrees. Average temperature in the summer months is 74 degrees. About 57% of the days are sunny. Annual precipitation is approximately 45 inches. Temperatures along the Atlantic Coast are about 10 degrees warmer in winter and 10 degrees cooler in summer. The average growing season varies from 170 to 200 days. The Coastal Plain is humid in the summers and had temperate winters.

People

The middle colonies contained Native American tribes of Algonquian and Iroquois language groups as well as a sizable percentage of African slaves during the early years. Unlike solidly Puritan New England, the middle colonies presented an assortment of religions. The presence of Quakers, Mennonites, Lutherans, Dutch Calvinists, and Presbyterians made the dominance of one faith next to impossible. This was because some of the proprietors there believed in religious tolerance and some did not care as long the people paid for the land they inhabited.

Some wealthy people worked in the city although most colonists were farmers. Because of fertile soil and a good growing season, most farmers grew enough for their family and a surplus, which they could sell. They grew wheat, grains, and many other things. New York and Philadelphia were the Middle Colonies’ biggest cities. This was because they were the center of trade with all the harbors to import and export goods. Many people were artisans or merchants with many skills. Other people tried to become apprentices to learn their trade. Other people became laborers. They could find general work such as helping load or unload ships or being house servants. Boys could learn shoe or boat making. Girls could open a cloth shop. However, most parents believed children should learn to run the family farm instead of going to college.

Trade goods

There were considerable differences between the New England, Middle and Southern regions. Economic activities and trade was dependent of the environment in which the Colonists lived. The geography and climate impacted the trade and economic activities of Middle Colonies. The Middle Colonies exported agricultural products and natural resources. The Middle colonies are often called the breadbasket colonies because they grew so many crops, especially wheat. The Middle colonies built flour mills where wheat was ground into flour, then shipped to England. A typical farm was 50 to 150 acres consisting of a house, barn, yard and fields. The Middle Colonies were also able to manufacture iron ore products such as plows, tools, kettles, nails and large blocks of iron which they exported to England. Cottage industries such as weaving, shoe-making, cabinetmaking, and other crafts were prominent in middle colonies, particularly Pennsylvania.

The Middle Colonies were in the prime location for the growth of grains. A predominate feature of the region is the Coastal Plain. This region had humid summers and temperate winters which is prime conditions for agriculture. Due to the climate of temperate summers, the grains were allowed to grow for longer periods of time. In the north, the winters were much too harsh to grow these grains. These grains were then exported to other Colonies due to its prime location to the ocean. The climate was prime for these grains which is a direct correlation to how geography relates to trade goods in the Middle Eastern Colonies.

Southern colonies

Location of Jamestown, Virginia

The southern British colonies in North America were the Colony of Virginia, Province of North Carolina, Province of South Carolina, and Province of Georgia. The first successful English colony in N. America was Jamestown, established off the Chesapeake Bay in 1607. In 1668 King Charles II granted the Carolina charter to eight Lords Proprietor. Georgia was not established as colony until 1732 under a charter granted to James Oglethorpe by King George II.

Geography

Located between 40 degrees and 30 degrees latitude, the physiographic makeup of the southern colonies is generally divided into three regions. The Atlantic Coastal Plain (divided into two parts; the Inner Coastal Plain and the Tidewater), the Piedmont, and the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachian mountain regions.

The Atlantic Coastal plains developed over the last 100 million years, flattening out with multiple episodes of flooding by the Atlantic Ocean as well as the transportation of sediment by river systems from the Appalachian Mountains. Crisscrossed by these river systems, the area became known as the Tidewater region due to the noticeable effect of the ocean's tides on the rivers that run through it.

French for "foothills", the Piedmont is characterized by rolling hills stretching between the coastal plain and the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is separated from the coastal plain by the "fall line", line where elevation falls noticeably, and is the sight of many waterfalls on the rivers in the region.

The Blue Ridge Mountains is a specific region of the Appalachians. The ridgeline of the mountains varies from being 5 to 65 miles wide, with peaks averaging around 2000 to 4000 ft above sea level. The area is covered in forests with hundreds of species of trees found within the range, and today are a source of timber today. Beyond the Blue mountains continues the rest of the Appalachians, except in Virginia where the Shenandoah valley opens up.

Climate

While the southern coast of the United States is located in similar latitudes of Southern Spain and Morocco, the climate is dominated by weather patterns moving overland as opposed to the oceanic weather patterns that dominate Western Europe. Due to this the east coast of North America is cooler than the regions congruent to it in the "Old World", with climate in the United States being roughly equivalent to climates 40-60 degrees latitude in Europe. During the time of colonization this effect was even more pronounced as the world was in the middle of the "Little Ice Age".The soil there is moist,which was perfect for farming.

Demographics

Colonization of the South during the period of 1600–1650 was mainly confined to Virginia and the Jamestown region in particular. While the majority of people who initially arrived at Jamestown in the first few years of colonization were Englishmen, the Virginia Company did hire artisans from Prussia, the Netherlands and Poland to fill the ranks of colonists, with the hope that they would be able to produce profitable goods for the company to sell in England.

Population growth was very slow at first, and depended on an increasing amount of settlers coming into Jamestown. Besides recruiting foreign artisans, the Virginia company tried many schemes to increase settlement of the colony, including transporting "Vagrant Children" from England to Virginia and shipping young women to be married to colonists. The Virginia Company also began to use the practice of indentured servitude, promising land at the end of the term to increase immigration to the colonies. 1619 marked the first time African slaves were brought to the colony, when 20 arrived on the White Lion, a Dutch trade ship that had captured them from a Portuguese slave ship. During the English Civil War and the Commonwealth Period of England, Virginia was a haven for cavaliers or royalists still loyal to the crown to live, known as Virginia Cavaliers.

Effect on the economy

The colonization of the south was greatly affected by the geography of the region. Jamestown Island (then a peninsula) itself was chosen for its physical geographic properties. Located inland a ways the peninsula offered protection from European powers as well as the James River ran deep enough in that the colonists could anchor their ships off shore, providing a simple and easy access. Geography often had a role in playing in settlement selection in the south, with most early settlements only extending as far inland as ships or boat could easily travel. The fall line between the piedmont and tidewater region is marked by settlements on where boats could not travel further due to the waterfalls and rapids common in this region.

Early colonization was marked by disaster and the failure of colonists to provide properly for themselves as well as turn a profit for the Virginia Company. This is in part due to the misconceptions about climate in Europe. Common belief in the "old world" had it that climates were the same at similar latitudes all across the world. Therefore, the southern United States, and Virginia in particular, were expected to be similar in climate to Southern Spain. Because of this colonists and Virginia Company initially tried to cultivate such plants as mulberry trees and orange trees, which were not sustainable.

While not as prevalent a belief, some European colonial leaders argued that the warmer climates of the southern latitudes would also cause such precious metals to rise towards the surface of the earth. Along with the stories of Spanish conquests finding "cities of gold", the Virginia Company sent along with their initial colonists equipment for prospecting and mining gold. These beliefs were shown to be wrong and equipment for agriculture and cultivation would have aided the early colonists.

Despite these initial misconceptions, the southern United States was rich geographically in particular for agricultural production. Tobacco, rice, and indigo were the main cash crops of the south during the colonial period. In 1612 John Rolfe introduced Tobacco into Jamestown and by 1640 England was importing 1.5 million pounds of tobacco from Virginia. Tobacco Cultivation was extremely difficult, and simple farmers on an acre of land just could not meet the demands in England on their own. With the introduction of African slaves in 1619, plantations began to arise that could meet the demand in the Europe.

Indigo was mainly cultivated in South Carolina beginning in 1739, due to the efforts of Eliza Lucas Pickney, and became one of the biggest cash crops of the colony up until the end of the war. American indigo reached its peak in 1773 when 1.1 million pounds were exported to England.

South Carolina's swampy wetlands also made it a prime area for the cultivation of rice. In the 1700s, the South Carolina economy was based upon the exportation of rice from its tidewater region. The first attempts at cultivation were failures, and South Carolinian planters began to pay premiums to have slaves imported from specific regions in Africa where rice was grown.