P. 2 APUSH
031915
Evaluate the extent to which geography was the primary factor in shaping the development of the British colonies in North America during the 1600s. Although the primary factor in shaping the development of the British colonies was geography, religion also influenced the British colonies during the 1600s.The New England colonies were initially founded to be a safe haven for the Puritan religion, while the middle colonies and southern colonies were founded for trade and profit. Once founded, the British colonies began producing different goods based on their geography. Each region depended on each other and Great Britain for certain goods they could not provide for themselves.
The reason for settlement in the New England colonies was religious freedom. The
majority of the settlers came in family units and their lives were centered around religion. The settlers of New England didn’t depend on their land for producing goods because the rocky soil and cold temperatures hindered the settlers from producing certain goods such as tobacco and wheat. Instead, their major export was timber and fish because of the heavy forestation and their close proximity to the ocean. The New England colonies imported wheat from the middle colonies and manufactured goods from Great Britain. The settlers of New
England didn’t make a living by farming, but instead by fishing and logging.
Unlike the New England colonies, the middle colonies and southern colonies’ initial motivation for settlement was for profit and cash crops. The settlers of these regions were mostly single men and indentured servants. The men who came over were searching for gold and fertile farmland while the indentured servants were brought over to work off their debt.
The land in both regions was very fertile and well suited for farming. The middle colonies produced most of the bread and wheat export and the southern colonies produced tobacco, indigo, cotton, sugar, and rice. Along with the New England colonies, both the middle and southern colonies imported manufactured goods from Great Britain as well.
The geography of each region widely influenced the development of the British colonies in North America along with some religious motivation. The rocky land and cold temperatures of the New England colonies prohibited the production of certain goods while the warm climates and fertile farmland of the middle and southern colonies maximized the agricultural production of cash crops.