Their summers were very warm and rainy, and in the winters, it was a mild climate so it did not get very cold. There were long growing seasons. Also, the Southern Colonies had long plains, some hilly regions, long rivers, and low, flat farmland. Like the Southern and Middle Colonies, the New England Colonies had some hills, but that is the only similarity of climate and geography between all of these Colonies. The New England Colonies had short and mild summers and the winters were long and cold.
Analyse the differences between the 3 regions The Thirteen Colonies were categorized into three groups: New England colonies, the Middle colonies and the Southern colonies. Each of these regions were completely different, meaning the location of course, and because of how each location was and is affected environmentally. Although these regions were founded by the English, different agricultural and industrial opportunities led to a unique economy, religion, and social order. Each region had their own type of houses, crops, churches, and values. They were very similar in some things but very different in others.
The southern Colonies were established early on after the Settlement of Jamestown in 1607.The geography of the southern colonies was hilly coastal plains with plenty of forests. The climate was the warmest of the three regions, winters not difficult to survive, warmer climate gave rise to spread of disease. In the South there was a great divide of rich and poor. The Southern Colonies was plantation economy based on single crops mainly tobacco and rice. New England Colonies subsistence, family operated farm and business economy dependent upon small farmers and merchants.
The livestock also made the soil more compact causing the soil to carry less water, making the land a less inhabitable environment for plants. This resulted in the Native Americans losing their crops. They also eventually had to start raising livestock and doing other European agricultural practices because, “Hunting too became difficult. Adjacent colonial settlements eventually tried to restrict Indian hunting on English land, and such key food sources as deer became hard to obtain.” (Cronon 103). When the Europeans noticed the Native Americans starting to lack the resources that they relied on, they took advantage of it.
The middle colonies were made up of many different religions making it hard for one religion to be dominant. The New York and New Jersey colonies were both royal colonies while Pennsylvania and Delaware were both proprietary governments. The middle colonies mostly grew wheat and had flour mills where wheat was turned into flour and shipped to England. They also made iron ore products like plows, tools, kettles, nails, and large blocks of iron which were shipped to England also. Settlement patterns usually included single family farms.
The New England families tend to travel together, they had a strong sense of community and really would watch out for one another like family. Education was important to the New England colony as so was religion and they were required to study the bible. The Southern Colonies were founded as an economic venture to create wealth where as for the New England colony were mainly about religious reformers and separatists. They were looking for a new way to praise God, that’s not to say that religion wasn’t important to the southern colonies because it was they just had a different way of going about it than the New England colonies. The religion in the southern colonies was more diverse.
In turn, there were scarcely any large towns or schools, and their literacy rate was low in comparison to the religious Puritans in New England. Their society suffered in the lack of education. Likewise, the New England and Chesapeake colonists began to settle in vastly different environments, ultimately shaping and diversifying their
Geography's effect on the early North American colonies is undeniable, but the way location affected the people of the early colonies is much more significant. Primarily, the economy was the biggest aspect of life affected by geography. From the Atlantic Ocean acting as a barrier from the New World to the Old World, and to the climate difference between the cold winters of the New England colonies to the hot summers in the Southern colonies, each played a central role in the development of the colonies. Good or bad, geography was always an essential factor economically for those who lived in the early southern, middle, and northern colonies. Geography has continually influenced the way people live and the early colonies were no different.
This affected the wealth of the economies specifically by the exchange of the ideas of growing crops and the swapping of animals. The colonies in the New World became efficient producers of some Old World transplants like: sugar, coffee, and wheat. They also struck an interest in animals such as: horses, pigs, cattle, and chickens. While the Old World learned how to grow potatoes, maize, and tobacco. The exchange of the animals inspired new methods of farming, and both the Old and New World seemed to be able to support their colonies with their knowledge of new crops.
In New England, people preferred to settle in cities with dense buildings; in the south dominated by sparsely scattered County; Mid colony combine both types of settlements. It is not difficult to imagine the conditions in which immigrants were arriving in the New World. Earth was a lot, and it almost cost nothing.