As Americans started to spread throughout the Atlantic coast during the 17th and 18th centuries, geography greatly influenced the economic development and overall success of the colonies that began to form. The Atlantic Ocean connected the colonial world to the old world, which helped colonists obtain goods like tea, steel, and manufactured products. When England creates its first permanent colonies in North America, an essential difference arose between the southern colonies, whose economy was dedicated to production of staple crops, and the more diverse economies of the northern colonies. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, the New England colonies and the southern colonies in America were ...view middle of the document...
Many cities were important finishing centers and ports of trade that with the idea of mercantilism, England had used the colonies to make manufactured good from collected from their ports.
However, way down in the southern colonies, the main goal was not religious affiliation but to turn over a quick profit. They had a very good environment for farming unlike the northern colonies and their most beneficial staple crop was tobacco. By growing more and more tobacco crops, colonists began making lots of money from trade, which made their economy prosper. There was religious freedom in the south but tobacco still ran the economy. Before tobacco saved the colonists, many were dying of starvation. Also the warn weather had a negative impact because diseases such as yellow fever and malaria were carried throughout the air and also killed a lot of people. Since the south colonies could support to grow many crops from grow soil, most of that was done the African slaves. The geography of the southern colonies had a broad, coastal plain that was hilly and covered with forests. The natural resources of the Southern Colonies included rich farmland, forests, and fish. There were many nearby rivers, which also helped with trading. While the north colonies imported agricultural products, the southern colonies exported their agricultural products.
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