Chesapeake Colonies Dbq Analysis

The New England and Chesapeake region colonies were the two early established colonies in America. Despite both consisting of predominantly English immigrants, the colonies grew to be two distinct societies. The two colonies developed differently because of the difference in immigrant ages, the laws made regulating economic equality, and the difference in geography. The difference in age between the settlers of the two colonies was an important factor that caused them to develop differently. The emigrants that went to the New England region consisted of many families, and in an early article of agreement they expressed their intention to establish a town with forty families (Doc D). A positive effect of this family environment was that it made men
The Chesapeake region was settled before New England. This meant they had to worry about the large amounts of native americans that inhabited the surrounding area. The Chesapeake region was plagued with attacks and invasions by the natives and the Dutch. Governor Berkeley of Virginia even at one point expresses that he feels they are unable to engage in a war against the Dutch (Doc G). He also points out Virginia also consisted of many rivers which made it increasingly harder to defend. He worries that many of the men needed to fight do not have much motivation because they are poor and either are in debt or are single and do not own much (Doc G). In contrast, New England did not have to deal with many of these issues. They Chesapeake settlers had come before them and with them had brought english diseases which were lethal to the natives and ended up wiping out a large percentage of them. The New Englanders had a significantly less natives to worry about because of this and also had no major threats posed by other european countries that had settled in the new