TOPIC 2.3
The Regions
of
British Colonies
THEMATIC FOCUS Geography and the Environment GEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
Learning Objective C
Explain how and why environmental and other factors shaped the development and expansion of various British colonies that developed and expanded from 1607 to 1754.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
KC-2.1.II.A
The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting tobacco—a labor intensive product initially cultivated by white, mostly male indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans.
KC-2.1.II.B
The New England colonies, initially settled by Puritans, developed around small towns with family farms and achieved a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce.
KC-2.1.II.C
The middle colonies supported a flourishing export economy based on cereal crops and attracted a broad range of European migrants,
leading to societies with greater cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance.
KC-2.1.II.D
The colonies of the southern Atlantic coast and the British West Indies used long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting staple crops. They depended on the labor of enslaved Africans, who often constituted the majority of the population in these areas and developed their own forms of cultural and religious autonomy.
KC-2.1.II.E
Distance and Britain’s initially lax attention led to the colonies creating self-governing institutions that were unusually democratic for the era. The New England colonies based power in participatory town meetings, which in turn elected members to their colonial legislatures; in the southern colonies, elite planters exercised local authority and also dominated the elected assemblies.
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
Learning Objective C
Explain how and why environmental and other factors shaped the development and expansion of various British colonies that developed and expanded from 1607 to 1754.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
KC-2.1.II.A
The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting tobacco—a labor intensive product initially cultivated by white, mostly male indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans.
KC-2.1.II.B
The New England colonies, initially settled by Puritans, developed around small towns with family farms and achieved a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce.
KC-2.1.II.C
The middle colonies supported a flourishing export economy based on cereal crops and attracted a broad range of European migrants,
leading to societies with greater cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance.
KC-2.1.II.D
The colonies of the southern Atlantic coast and the British West Indies used long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting staple crops. They depended on the labor of enslaved Africans, who often constituted the majority of the population in these areas and developed their own forms of cultural and religious autonomy.
KC-2.1.II.E
Distance and Britain’s initially lax attention led to the colonies creating self-governing institutions that were unusually democratic for the era. The New England colonies based power in participatory town meetings, which in turn elected members to their colonial legislatures; in the southern colonies, elite planters exercised local authority and also dominated the elected assemblies.
