Compare And Contrast The Geography Of New England And The Chesapeake Colonies

While North America was settled in the majority by Englishmen of the same nationality, by the time of the 1700s, the New England and Chesapeake regions developed adversely from one another. England sent over numerous groups to these two regions. From the start, New England and the Chesapeake had different values and identities. These differences originated from the reasons that they decided to come to the New World in the first place, and where on the coast they were. This affected the colonies from then on out in many ways, such as economically, geographically, and in the everyday lives of the colonists. From the beginning, almost all the English colonies were commercial ventures, and were tied in crucial ways to other economies. They developed …show more content…
The geography of New England was mostly hills with rocky soil. This factor, along with the climate, was one of the main reasons why agriculture did not thrive in this region. The climate of the New England colony was much colder than the Chesapeake colony because it was further north. This served as a negative and positive impact on the New England colony. The colder climate prevented the spread of life threatening diseases, however, it also killed many people due to severe weather in the winter time. On the other hand, the Chesapeake colony had much warmer weather. This being said, they did not have to worry as much about cold winters, but the warm, moist climate carried diseases that killed most of the colonists. The Chesapeake region had a broad, coastal plain with rich farmland and forests. Due to the geography and climate of their region, it was much more possible to make agriculture the focus of their community. However, due to their harsh climates up north, New England colony was forced to place their intentions elsewhere. Climate and geography, unfortunately, were not particularly the worst of the two regions