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AMERICAN

ECONOMIC HISTORY

CHAPTER I

PHYSIOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND NATURAL
RESOURCES

Geographic Influences Potent in American History.—The study of history, particularly economic history, must begin with a knowledge of the physical outline and resources of the unit under observation. Nature determines to a large extent where man shall live, what kind of work he shall do, what he may produce, and the routes over which he must travel and transport his products. Because of its influence upon his economic life, · natural environment goes far to determine man's social and political point of view, his habits and desires, and even his physical frame.1

The history of the United States, written so largely in terms of the conquest of the continent, shows physiographic influence at every step. The contour of the coast fixed the place of the first settlements, the river valleys and mountain gaps pointed the route westward, while the formation of the soil and the nature of its products determined the occupation of the settler after he had reached the new country.

Geographic Divisions of the United States.-The North American continent forms a rough triangle perhaps three thousand miles across at the north and tapering to the width of but a few miles at the Isthmus of Panama. Facing three oceans, it is influenced by each. The Pacific sends a stream of warm water against the western coast, which makes it habitable as far as Alaska, although, because of the Cordilleras, the effect is limited

1 See Boas, Franz, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants (1912), compiled from U. S. Immigration Commission Reports.

to the fringe of.seacoast. The Gulf Stream of the Atlantic provides rainfall for the lower Mississippi and Gulf states, and its influence can be seen as far north as New England. The Arctic, where it touches America, cut off from the currents of both Atlantic and Pacific, is icebound and renders unfit for habitation a large part of the northern half of the continent. A vast mountain range, the Cordilleras, traverses the western portion of the continent from Alaska to Panama. At its widest point, around the fortieth parallel, this system has a breadth of about one thousand miles, with many of its peaks attaining a height of fourteen thousand feet. On the east the Appalachian system, bordering a fringe of seacoast and interspersed with fertile valleys, extends from Newfoundland to Alabama. It is nowhere as high as seven thousand feet. Between these two mountain ranges lies an immense plain which, with the exception of a few patches of low mountains, stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic. The drainage of this great plain is carried off by three main outlets: (1) the Mississippi and its tributaries, the Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, and Red rivers, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico; (2) the Great Lakes, draining into the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic; and (3) the MacKenzie and numerous streams running into Hudson Bay.

On this continent, roughly between the twenty-ninth and fortyninth parallels, lies the United States of America. In area it contains 3,026,789 square miles-over two-thirds the size of Europe. It has been divided geographically into six more or less distinct parts:

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(1) The eastern lowlands, or coastal plain, lying between the shore and the Appalachians. This region includes the eastern fringe of the states facing the Atlantic. Although the soil is not so fertile as that farther west, it is suitable for ordinary garden vegetables and for wheat, corn, and tobacco. It fortunately provided the first settlers with two indigenous plants-their chief cereal, corn; and their chief export (the economic backbone of the colonial south), tobacco. As the agricultural center shifted

1 Shaler, N. S., in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. iv, intro., part i, p. iii.

westward, the future of the coastal plain became more and more wrapped up in two activities, manufacturing and commerce, the former made possible by the unsurpassed water power of the fall line, and the latter by the excellent harbors of the frequently indented coast. Two strings of cities mark the boundaries of the coastal plain-on the west the cities of the fall line-Montgomery, Macon, Columbia, Raleigh, Richmond, Baltimore, Trenton, Hartford; on the east the seacoast cities-Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, Norfolk, New York.

(2) The Appalachian region, directly to the west, composed of two parallel mountain ranges, with a broad valley between. The older mountains, geologically, are the Appalachians-steep, rugged slopes forming a narrow chain extending from Newfoundland to Alabama, and rising to heights of over six thousand feet in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Black Mountains of North Carolina. The Alleghany Mountains are much gentler in their slopes and valleys, and are nowhere higher than five thousand feet. They extend from the Catskills in New York to northern Alabama. Between these two ranges lies a fertile valley about forty miles in width, on the average, extending from New Jersey to Georgia—a distance of over six hundred miles. On both sides of these mountain systems, and especially to the west, are vast table-lands, merging gradually into the plains. In all, this section comprises some three hundred thousand square miles, only twelve thousand of which are untillable, and contains in its fertile piedmonts and valleys, notably the Shenandoah, Cumberland, and Tennessee, some of the finest farming lands in America. The position of natural resources has given rise to a pronounced geographic localization of industries. Thus the nearness of the mountains to the coast in New England causes a rapid fall in the streams, and produces the water power that has made of New England a manufacturing_center; while the coal and iron deposits of Pennsylvania and the southern Appalachian states have given rise to the great iron and steel cities of Pittsburgh and Birmingham.

(3) Lowlands of the Gulf states. This region includes Florida, southern Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and

eastern Texas, where the rich black alluvial soil and the hot climate form an excellent combination for the staple crop, cotton.

(4) The great plain of the Mississippi Valley. The Mississippi Valley consists of a relatively small delta section of alluvial soil, some twenty to thirty thousand square miles in area, and the great table-lands of the Appalachians and the Rockies. The wide fertile prairies and river valleys of this region make it the agricultural heart of the New World. It is here that immense crops of wheat and corn are raised, while in the Mississippi delta, cotton, as in the Gulf states, is king. The "Father of Waters" and its tributaries, the Ohio and the Missouri, furnish excellent natural transportation facilities, which are augmented to the north by the Great Lakes and their connecting canals.

(5) The Cordillera region. Although fertile valleys are to be found here and bits have been made artificially arable by irrigation, the greater part (Shaler estimates nineteen-twentieths) is barren. The great value of this region in the past has come chiefly from its mineral deposits of copper, iron, silver, and gold. As contrasted with the great Mississippi Valley, which has the potential capacity to support an enormous population, the Cordillera region will probably always be sparsely populated, especially when its mineral resources are exhausted. Nevertheless, the increasing attention devoted to irrigation projects and dry farming is slowly laying the foundation for a permanent prosperity.

(6) A narrow region of low mountains on the extreme western coast. Of great fertility and extremely even and temperate climate, this section has recently developed enormously the production of fruit. Although the Pacific coast is unfortunate in that it possesses but few natural harbors, the opening of the Panama Canal and the rapidly growing commercial importance of the Far East point to the increasing use of such facilities as are offered at the Golden Gate, Puget Sound, and the Columbia River. Gold brought the first English-speaking settlers to California, and that state still ranks first in the Union in the mining of gold; but its great present and future wealth depends upon other products.

Geographic Influence Upon Colonization and Settlement. -Although the American continent is accessible on its western side and the ancestors of the aborigines undoubtedly entered it from Asia, it was most fortunate that when the white man came to these shores he approached them from the east. Had the continent been turned around, its history would have been different, for the rugged Cordilleras would have presented to the pioneer a difficult, if not impassable, barrier. After the forbidding Atlantic had once been crossed, the European found a land the ingress to which was simple. The St. Lawrence Valley connecting with the Great Lakes, the Hudson River opening through the Appalachians, and the Mississippi with its innumerable tributaries penetrating the very heart of the continent, pointed the way inland and made possible a more rapid settlement. Many smaller rivers, such as the Connecticut, the Delaware, and the James, cut into the coastal plain as far as the Appalachians and formed the natural highways for the early settlers. Along these rivers the settlements were planted, and down them were floated furs and tobacco, the two products that first linked the colonies with the markets of Europe. It is estimated that there are over 26,000 miles of navigable rivers in the United States, not counting the 2,760 (meandered length, 4,329) miles of shore line on the Great Lakes. Including indentations, the coast line on both oceans amounts to over 64,000 miles, with at least two-thirds of this directly accessible to Europe on the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. With numerous rivers and an indented coast, good harbors were to be expected. The Atlantic and Gulf states show excellent examples of each harbor type: New York and Baltimore of the drowned valley; Galveston, Provincetown, and many little harbors on the Carolina, Florida, and New Jersey coasts, of harbors formed from barrier reefs; New Orleans and Philadelphia of river harbors. These and numerous other natural ports and river towns provided the points at which the raw materials for export could be gathered and the manufactured products of the mother country received and marketed.

The United States as a Habitat for Man.-The territory now embraced in the United States was eminently fitted for those

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