
Outside of New England, dispersed rural settlements were more common in the American colonies. Meanwhile, in New England and in Great Britain clustered rural settlements were converted to a dispersed pattern.
Full Answer
What is a dispersed settlement?
A dispersed settlement, also known as a scattered settlement, is one of the main types of settlement patterns used by landscape historians to classify rural settlements found in England and other parts of the world. Typically, there are a number of separate farmsteads scattered throughout the area.
What is the difference between dispersed settlements and nucleated villages?
A dispersed settlements is the contrast of a nucleated village. An example of a dispersed settlement in Japan. A dispersed settlement is the scattered pattern of households in a particular area. This form of settlement is common in the world’s rural regions. The settlement pattern contrasts those found in nucleated villages.
How might the presence of clustered rural settlements in New England have?
Also, increasing population led to shortage of land. How might the presence of clustered rural settlements in New England have contributed to the region's distinctive dialect of English noted in Chapter 5? Original groups of settlers came from same area in England and clustered together - perpetuating this dialect.
What are the different types of rural settlements?
There are many types of rural settlements. Using as classification criteria the shape, internal structure, and streets texture, settlements can be classified into two broad categories: clustered and dispersed.

Where are dispersed rural settlements typically located?
A scattered dispersed type of rural settlement is generally found in a variety of landforms, such as the foothill, tableland, and upland regions. Yet, the proper scattered village is found at the highest elevations and reflects the rugged terrain and pastoral economic life.
What was the settlement of New England?
The first European settlement in New England was a French colony established by Samuel de Champlain on Saint Croix Island, Maine in 1604. As early as 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders began to trade metal, glass, and cloth for local beaver pelts.
Why did dispersed rural settlement patterns dominate the Midwest of the United States?
Dispersed rural settlement patterns dominated in the American Midwest in part because the early settlers came primarily from the Middle Atlantic colonies. Dispersed rural settlements were considered more efficient for agriculture than clustered settlements.
Where dispersed settlement are often found?
Generally , such settlements are found in the areas of high relief , dense forests , grasslands , hot deserts and extensive agricultural lands. Scattered settlements have limited populations as in small hamlets i.e pada , wadi etc.
What is New England known for?
New England is famous for foods like clam chowder, Maine lobsters, Vermont maple syrup, turkey, Boston baked beans, and Boston cream pie. Boston, Massachusetts, the largest metropolitan area in the region, pre-dates the American Revolution, and its Freedom Trail passes sites that were critical to the nation's founding.
What are the New England colonies known for?
In the New England towns along the coast, the colonists made their living fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding. The fish included cod, mackerel, herring, halibut, hake, bass and sturgeon. Whale oil was a valuable resource as it could be used in lamps....New England Colonies.●New England Colonies●Middle Colonies●Southern Colonies
What are the four types of rural settlements?
Rural settlements in India can broadly be put into four types: • Clustered, agglomerated or nucleated, • Semi-clustered or fragmented, • Hamleted, and • Dispersed or isolated.
What is meant by dispersed settlement?
A dispersed settlement, also known as a scattered settlement, is one of the main types of settlement patterns used by landscape historians to classify rural settlements found in England and other parts of the world. Typically, there are a number of separate farmsteads scattered throughout the area.
Is rural settlement dispersed or nucleated?
Dispersed Rural Settlements A dispersed settlement is one of the main types of settlement patterns used to classify rural settlements. Typically, in stark contrast to a nucleated settlement, dispersed settlements range from a scattered to an isolated pattern (Figure 12.6).
What is dispersed settlement example?
Dispersed settlements are ones where the houses are spread out over a wide area. They are often the homes of farmers and can be found in rural areas. Example of a dispersed settlement: Brülisau, Switzerland is an example of a linear settlement.
What are the three types of rural settlement?
Common types of rural settlements are villages, hamlets and farms. Traditionally, rural settlements were associated with agriculture. In modern times other types of rural communities have been developed .
Why do we have dispersed settlements?
If the landscape has few natural resources, a low population, infertile or poor soil, and bad weather conditions, then few towns will develop in the area and people will travel great distances to the nearest town. All of these factors contribute to a dispersed pattern.
What was the reason for settlement in the New England colonies?
The New England colonies were founded to escape religious persecution in England. The Middle colonies, like Delaware, New York, and New Jersey, were founded as trade centers, while Pennsylvania was founded as a safe haven for Quakers.
Who settled the New England colony?
The original settlers of the New England colonies emigrated from Britain to the Americas for religious freedom. They fell into two categories: pilgrims and puritans. Pilgrims were separatists – they wanted to distance themselves from the Church of England and practice their own religion.
Who settled the earliest New England colonies?
PuritansEstablishing the New England Colonies. A group of Puritans known as the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower from England and the Netherlands to establish Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, the second successful English colony in North America following Jamestown, Virginia.
What made the English settlement of New England distinctive?
What made the English settlement of New England distinctive? In the English settlement of New England a different social order emerged, a religious movement known as "Puritanism." The Puritans had different beliefs for the family, government and society, and the relationship between the church and state.
What is a dispersed settlement?
A dispersed settlement, also known as a scattered settlement, is one of the main types of settlement patterns used by landscape historians to classify rural settlements found in England and other parts of the world. Typically, there are a number of separate farmsteads scattered throughout the area.
Why did the dispersed settlement disappear?
However, during the 20th century, much of this woodland disappeared, either as a result of disease or modern farming practice. Arthur Young 's description of the view from Langdon Hills, "dark lanes intersected with numberless hedges and woods," is a typical description of the landscape in an area of dispersed settlements.
Why did the settlement pattern develop in Locorotondo?
In this case, the settlement pattern developed because of movement from the town to the countryside in the 19th century. Emphyteutic leases were used by landowners seeking to increase their income from land that was only marginally attractive for agriculture by encouraging the creation of vineyards .
What is dispersed settlement?
A dispersed settlement is the scattered pattern of households in a particular area. This form of settlement is common in the world’s rural regions. The settlement pattern contrasts those found in nucleated villages.
Where did the dispersed settlements originate?
Italy’s province of Bari also has examples of dispersed settlements, many of which are found around Locorotondo. The origin of this settlement in southern Italy is traced back to the 19th century when many people migrated from urban centers and settled in the rural areas.
What are the common economic activities practiced in regions with a dispersed settlement?
The common economic activities practiced in regions with a dispersed settlement include large-scale farming, ranching, and lumbering.
What are the characteristics of a dispersed settlement?
Several characteristics define a dispersed settlement, and they are found mainly in the regions with grasslands, thick forests, poor agricultural lands, extreme climates, regions with extensive cultivation, hilly tracts, and region s where the farmer live in the agricultural land as opposed to distant settlement or village.Dispersed settlement is a relatively new phenomenon because humans have all along throughout the history lived in closed communities. However, this type of settlement can also be seen in a highly-productive land where the reason behind the dispersed settlement is usually socio-cultural or historical. The common economic activities practiced in regions with a dispersed settlement include large-scale farming, ranching, and lumbering.
Why are people at great risk in a dispersed settlement?
Due to the isolation of individual households in a dispersed settlement, the inhabitants are at great risk to breaches in security . The minimal social interaction between the households in a dispersed settlement is another result of the household isolation seen in a dispersed settlement.
Is living in a dispersed settlement bad?
However, there also benefits that come with living in a dispersed settlement. The isolation of the households is not entirely bad, as it provides the inhabitants with privacy. Poor sanitation and deplorable drainage systems are rarely a problem in dispersed settlements since a few people use these amenities.
What is clustered rural settlement?
A clustered rural settlement is a rural settlement where a number of families live in close proximity to each other, with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings. The layout of this type of village reflects historical circumstances, the nature of the land, economic conditions, and local cultural characteristics. ...
Where did the dispersed settlement pattern originate?
In the United States, the dispersed settlement pattern was developed first in the Middle Atlantic colonies as a result of the individual immigrants’ arrivals. As people started to move westward, where land was plentiful, the isolated type of settlements became dominant in the American Midwest.
What is a scattered village?
A scattered dispersed type of rural settlement is generally found in a variety of landforms, such as the foothill, tableland, and upland regions. Yet, the proper scattered village is found at the highest elevations and reflects the rugged terrain and pastoral economic life. The population maintains many traditional features in architecture, dress, and social customs, and the old market centers are still important. Small plots and dwellings are carved out of the forests and on the upland pastures wherever physical conditions permit. Mining, livestock raising, and agriculture are the main economic activities, the latter characterized by terrace cultivation on the mountain slopes. The sub-mountain regions, with hills and valleys covered by plowed fields, vineyards, orchards, and pastures, typically have this type of settlement.
What is linear settlement?
Linear Rural Settlements. The linear form is comprised of buildings along a road, river, dike, or seacoast. Excluding the mountainous zones, the agricultural land is extended behind the buildings. The river can supply the people with a water source and the availability to travel and communicate.
What are the two categories of settlements?
Using as classification criteria the shape, internal structure, and streets texture, settlements can be classified into two broad categories: clustered and dispersed.
Where do isolated farms live?
In the United States, the dispersed settlement pattern was developed first in the Middle Atlantic colonies as a result of the individual immigrants’ arrivals. As people started to move westward, where land was plentiful, the isolated type of settlements became dominant in the American Midwest. These farms are located in the large plains and plateaus agricultural areas, but some isolated farms, including hamlets, can also be found in different mountainous areas ( Figures 12.7 and 12.8 ).
Where are small garden plots located?
Small garden plots are located in the first ring surrounding the houses , continued with large cultivated land areas, pastures, and woodlands in successive rings. The compact villages are located either in the plain areas with important water resources or in some hilly and mountainous depressions.
What were the disadvantages of the dispersed rural settlements in the United States?
Owning several discontinuous fields around a clustered rural settlement had several disadvantages: Farmers lost time moving between fields, villagers had to build more roads to connect the small lots, and farmers were restricted in what they could plant. With the introduction of farm machin- ery, farms operated more efficiently at a larger scale. DISPERSED RURAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES. The Middle Atlantic colonies were settled by more heterogeneous groups than those in New England. Colonists came from Germany, Holland, Ireland, Scotland, and Sweden, as well as from England. Most arrived in Middle Atlantic colonies individually rather than as a member of a cohesive religious or cultural group. Some bought tracts of land from speculators. Others acquired land directly from individuals who had been given large land grants by the English government, including William Penn (Pennsylvania), Lord Baltimore (Maryland), and Sir George Carteret (the Carolinas). Dispersed settlement patterns dominated in the American Mid- west in part because the early settlers came primarily from the Middle Atlantic colonies. The pioneers crossed the Appalachian Mountains and established dispersed farms on the frontier. Land was plentiful and cheap, and people bought as much as they could manage. In New England a dispersed distribution began to replace clustered settlements in the eighteenth century. Eventually people bought, sold, and exchanged land to create large, continuous holdings instead of several isolated pieces. The clustered rural settlement pattern worked when the pop- ulation was low, but settlements had no spare land to meet the needs of a population that was growing through natural increase and net in-migration. A shortage of land eventually forced immigrants and children to strike out alone and claim farmland on the frontier. In addition, the cultural bonds that had created clustered rural settlements were weakened. Descen- dants of the original settlers were less interested in the religious and cultural values that had unified the original immigrants. DISPERSED RURAL SETTLEMENTS IN GREAT BRITAIN. To improve agricultural production, a number of European countries converted their rural landscapes from clustered settlements to dispersed patterns. Dispersed settlements were considered more efficient for agriculture than clustered settlements. A prominent example was the enclosure movement in Great Britain, between 1750 and 1850. The British government transformed the rural landscape by consolidating individually owned strips of land surrounding a village into a single large farm, owned by an individual. When necessary, the government forced people to give up their former holdings. The enclosure movement brought greater agricultural effi- ciency, but it destroyed the self-contained world of village life. Vil- lage populations declined drastically as displaced farmers moved to urban settlements. Because the enclosure movement coincided with the Industrial Revolution, villagers who were displaced from farming moved to urban settlements and became workers in fac- tories and services. Some villages became the centers of the new, larger farms, but villages that were not centrally located to a new farm’s extensive land holdings were abandoned and replaced with entirely new farmsteads at more strategic locations. As a result, the isolated, dispersed farmstead, unknown in medieval England, is now a common feature of that country’s rural landscape. As recently as 1800, only 3 percent of Earth’s population lived in cities, and only one city in the world—Beijing—had more than 1 million inhabitants. Two centuries later, one-half of the world’s people live in cities, and more than 400 of them have at least 1 million inhabitants. This rapid growth has made it difficult to define the boundaries of cities (see Chapter 13).
What is clustered rural settlement?
A clustered rural settlementis a place where a number of families live in close proximity to each other, with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings. A dispersed rural settlement, typical of the North Ameri- can rural landscape, is characterized by farmers living on individual farms iso- lated from neighbors rather than along- side other farmers in settlements.
Why is the percentage of urban dwellers high in MDCs?
The world map of urban percentages looks very much like the world map of percentage of GDP derived from services (Figure 12-1). The percentage of urban dwellers is high in MDCs because over the past 200 years rural residents have migrated from the countryside to work in the factories and services that are con- centrated in cities. The need for fewer farm workers has pushed people out of rural areas, and rising employment opportunities in manufacturing and services have lured them into urban areas. Because everyone resides either in an urban settlement or a rural settlement, an increase in the percentage living in urban areas has produced a corresponding decrease in the percentage living in rural areas. Because the percentage living in urban areas simply cannot increase much more in MDCs, the process of urbanization that began around 1800 has largely ended. Nearly everyone interested in migrating from rural to urban areas has already done so, leav- ing those who choose to live in rural areas. We can now speak of MDCs as being fully urbanized, because the percentage of urban residents is so high. In recent years in LDCs, the percentage living in cities has risen rapidly because of the migration of rural resi- dents to the cities in search of jobs in manufacturing or services. As in MDCs, people in LDCs are pushed off the farms by declin- ing opportunities. However, urban jobs are by no means assured in LDCs experiencing rapid overall population growth.
How many kilometers are there in a clustered rural settlement?
The fields must be acces- sible to the farmers and are thus generally limited to a radius of 1 or 2 kilometers (1⁄
What are the services clustered in settlements?
Services are clustered in settlements. Rural settlements are centers for agriculture and provide a small number of serv- ices; urban settlements are centers for consumer and busi- ness services. One-half of the people in the world currently live in a rural settlement, and the other half in an urban settlement.■
What are the two dimensions of urbanization?
The process by which the population of urban settlements grows, known as urbanization, has two dimensions—an increase in the numberof people living in cities and an increase in the percentageof people living in cities. The distinction between the two factors is important because they occur for different reasons and have different global distributions. A large percentage of people living in urban settlements reflects a country’s level of development. In MDCs, about three- fourths of the people live in urban areas, compared to about two-fifths in LDCs. The major exception to the global pattern is Latin America, where the urban percentage is comparable to the
What percentage of people lived in urban settlements in 1900?
The percentage of people living in urban settlements had increased from 3 percent in 1800 to 6 percent in 1850, 14 percent in 1900, 30 percent in 1950, and 47 percent in 2000.
