What factors led to the economic development of the Middle Colonies? This area had good coastal harbors for shipping. Climate and land were ideal for agriculture. These colonies were known as the “breadbasket” because of the large amounts of barley, wheat, oats, and rye that were grown here.
Why were the middle colonies successful?
The Middle Colonies had much fertile soil, which allowed the area to become a major exporter of wheat and other grains
. The lumber and shipbuilding industries were also successful in the Middle Colonies because of the abundant forests, and Pennsylvania was moderately successful in the textile and iron industries.
What are the 3 factors that affected or shaped regional economic growth in the American colonies?
Climate, soil conditions, and other natural resources
shaped regional economic development.
What were the main labor sources in the Middle Colonies?
As a carryover from English practice,
indentured servants
were the original standard for forced labor in New England and middle colonies like Pennsylvania and Delaware. These indentured servants were people voluntarily working off debts, usually signing a contract to perform slave-level labor for four to seven years.
What was the colonists economy based on?
Life in colonial America was based
largely on agriculture
. Most colonists farmed or made their livings from related activities such as milling flour. Geography played an important role in the colonies' economic development.
What were the major factors that contributed to the demographic changes in the English colonies during the eighteenth century?
Cheap land lured poor immigrants
. The initial shortage of women eventually gave way to more equal gender ratios and a tendency to marry earlier than in Europe.
The middle colonies combined characteristics of the New England and southern Page 2 colonies. With a good climate and rich land, farmers there could grow large amounts of staple crops—crops that are always needed. These crops included
wheat, barley, and oats
. Farmers also raised livestock.
Fishing (especially codfish) was most important to the New England economy, though
whaling, trapping, shipbuilding, and logging
were important also. Eventually, many New England shippers grew wealthy buying slaves from West Africa in return for rum, and selling the slaves to the West Indies in return for molasses.
The fertile soil and good growing climate
were the main reasons that the Middle Colonies were more successful at growing crops than the New England and Southern Colonies. The land was also easier to expand than in the other colonies.
The southern colonists had recourses including good farmland and lumber. the major difference between new england and middle colonies was
the quality of land
. the middle colonies had rich farmland and a moderate climate, which made farming easier than it was in New England.
The geography of the middle region had a warmer climate with fertile soil flat land swift rivers and wide valleys making it perfect for farming and growing crops.
Wealthy farmers grew cash crops and raised livestock. Mining and trading were also important aspects of their economy.
Agriculture
had a large role in the economies of the Middle Colonies.
Among the mainland colonies, the
white southerners
were the richest, on average, with about twice the wealth of New England or the Middle Atlantic region. If we include the West Indies as one of the colonial areas, then its thriving sugar industry made it the wealthiest.
- The Stamp Act (March 1765)
- The Townshend Acts (June-July 1767)
- The Boston Massacre (March 1770)
- The Boston Tea Party (December 1773)
- The Coercive Acts (March-June 1774)
- Lexington and Concord (April 1775)
- British attacks on coastal towns (October 1775-January 1776)
The development of the Atlantic economy also allowed colonists access to more British goods than ever before.
The buying habits of both commoners and the rising colonial gentry
fueled the consumer revolution, creating even stronger ties with Great Britain by means of a shared community of taste and ideas.
The Middle Colonies included Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, and New Jersey. The geography of the middle region had a
warmer climate with fertile soil, flat land, swift rivers, and wide valleys
making it perfect for farming and growing crops. Wealthy farmers grew cash crops and raised livestock.
In contrast to the South where the cash crop plantation system dominated, and New England whose rocky soil made large-scale agriculture difficult,
The middle colonies were fertile
. Land was generally acquired more easily than in New England or in the plantation South.
The Cities Prosper
Because of its enormous trade
, Philadelphia was the fastest growing city in the colonies. The city owed its expansion to a thriving trade in wheat and other cash crops.
The Southern economy was
almost entirely based on farming
. Rice, indigo, tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton were cash crops. Crops were grown on large plantations where slaves and indentured servants worked the land. In fact, Charleston, South Carolina became one of the centers of the American slave trade in the 1700's.
