Question

What impact did geography have on the development of the American colonies?

it led to a variety of economic differences between the northern, middle, and southern colonies.

but why did they?

Answer 1

the northern colonies had (and still have) fast flowing rivers that they could build factories by. the northern colonies also had large port towns. in the middle and southern colonies (more in the southern colonies) there was lots of open land that was used for plantations to grow crops, mainly cotton. the south doesn't have fast flowing rivers, so they couldn't build factories that were powered by water. the port towns in the south weren't as large as the ones in the north and parts of the middle colonies. when the railroad was being built, southerners didn't want lots of railroad tracks, unlike the north which was connected extensively by railroads.