
From the 1650s to the 1770s, the Coastal Plain Region of the land we now call North Carolina changed greatly. European American settlers began arriving, pushing back the Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years. Against their will, many Africans and African Americans were forced to settle in the area as slaves.
Full Answer
How did the coastal plain change over time?
From the 1650s to the 1770s, the Coastal Plain Region of the land we now call North Carolina changed greatly. European American settlers began arriving, pushing back the Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years. Against their will, many Africans and African Americans were forced to settle in the area as slaves.
When did the rate of settlement west of the coastal plain accelerate?
With the suppression of piracy and the ending of local Indian wars by 1720, the rate of settlement west of the Coastal Plain accelerated dramatically, continuing throughout the royal period (1729-75) but temporarily slowing down during the French and Indian War (1754-63). Beginning around 1730, migration into the region proceeded largely along t...
What factors affect settlement patterns?
Factors That Influence Settlement Patterns. Settlement patterns are the ways in which human settlements are distributed across the earth’s land, including the locations of cities, towns and even individual homes. Where people settle is determined by a wide range of factors related to both nature and human society.
Why study early coastal settlements in high latitudes?
Studies investigating early coastal settlements in high latitudes can provide information on how past populations subsisted in areas of low biodiversity and increased seasonality of available resources.
What are the factors affecting settlement patterns?
Where people settle is determined by the main factors such as physical environment,demographic, natural, transportation, economic and social concerns.
Why do settlements develop in the coastal areas?
Throughout history, people have settled on coasts to take advantage of the amenities the oceans offer – a food supply, a source of transport, a defensible position and a healthy location.
Why was the Coastal Plain attractive to early settlers?
Most settlers were attracted to this region by vast amounts of unclaimed land that were available and by commercial opportunities offered by the Cape Fear River.
How Can geography affect settlement patterns?
Geography is often a major factor in deciding where a group of people settle. People need access to natural resources to build their homes and other infrastructure, to land that can provide food and water, and to places that are easily accessible to those who live in them.
What are the effects of coastal development?
Coastal development can cause chronic sedimentation, sewage effluent, industrial discharge, changes waterflow and run off which can harmfully affect coral growth rates and metabolic activities as well as directly kill corals. The damage doesn't end with the construction of tourist infrastructure.
What type of settlement do you find along a coastline?
A linear settlement is a settlement that is formed in a long line. It follows a transport route, such as a road, river, canal, coastlines, mountains, hills or valleys. A linear settlement has no obvious center.
How did people adapt to living in the coastal plains?
Adaptations: The Coastal Plains are good for farming because of the amount of rainfall they receive. Ancient people grew crops such as grains, fruits, and vegetables. They built dams, wells, and irrigation ditches to help water the crops.
Why are the coastal plains important?
Why are the coastal plains important? The coastal regions of India are noted for agriculture, trade, industrial centres, tourist centres, fishing and salt making. They provide important hinterlands for big ports.
What are the important features of the coastal plains?
The main features of coastal plains include low elevation, a geologic border with inland areas, an ocean on one side, and fertile soil.
What are 3 factors that affect rural settlement patterns?
Studies show that there are three sets of factors that affect the sites and location of rural settlements. They are-physical factors, socio-cultural factors and economic factors.
What are the 3 main settlement patterns?
There are three main settlement patterns: nucleated, linear and dispersed.
What are the 4 main settlement patterns?
Rural settlement patterns refer to the shape of the settlement boundaries, which often involve an interaction with the surrounding landscape features. The most common patterns are linear, rectangular, circular or semi-circular, and triangular.
Why do people live near the coast?
Because of the economic benefits that accrue from access to ocean navigation, coastal fisheries, tourism and recreation, human settlements are often more concentrated in the coastal zone than elsewhere. Presently about 40% of the world's population lives within 100 kilometers of the coast.
Why did settlements grow near the river valleys Class 7?
Settlements grew near the river valleys because plenty of water was available there and land was fertile. Was this answer helpful?
Why did the early humans settle near water bodies?
The prehistoric people settled near the banks of rivers because of the easily available water for irrigation, and the favourable climatic conditions that helped their crops to grow. Q. Why did people first settle near river valleys?
Why do human settlements thrive on the plains?
The settlements grew near the river valleys as water was available and land was fertile. With the development of trade, commerce and manufacturing, human settlements became larger. Settlement flourished and civilizations developed near river valleys.
What were the early settlers?
The early settlers were primarily English merchants, traders, and farmers from the Jamestown area seeking better opportunities and freedom from taxation. Among them were small numbers of Irish, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh immigrants. Their southern advance was slow and the date of onset obscure.
Where did the Highland Scots move to?
Some settlers entered the Cape Fear region by way of the "100-mile road" from the vicinity of New Bern. Among the largest groups traveling north along the Cape Fear River were the Highland Scots, many of whom moved into the region now centered around Fayetteville after 1732.
How many people lived in North Carolina in 1663?
By 1663 about 500 people lived between Virginia and Albemarle Sound; by 1675, around 4,000 were situated there. The coastal population in 1730 has been estimated at about 36,000 (including about 6,000 blacks); nonetheless, North Carolina remained the most sparsely settled English colony on the continent. Aside from a few Lowland Scots and Welsh, the majority of settlers throughout the Proprietary period (1663-1729) continued to be English. French Huguenots also located along the upper Neuse River beginning in the 1690s, and German Palatines and Swiss inhabited New Bern from its founding.
Where did the first colonists settle in North Carolina?
Although there had been earlier attempts at settlement by the Spanish and English, the first permanent colonies in North Carolina took hold during the mid-seventeenth century and were scattered along the sounds, rivers, and creeks north of Albemarle Sound, a region then claimed by Virginia. The early settlers were primarily English merchants, traders, and farmers from the Jamestown area seeking better opportunities and freedom from taxation. Among them were small numbers of Irish, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh immigrants. Their southern advance was slow and the date of onset obscure. Some colonists arrived with slaves, and records indicate that lands were sometimes granted or sold by local Indians.
When did the colonists move west into the interior?
1733). As land near the coast became less available, colonists moved west into the interior along rivers and creeks, reaching the Eno River by about 1735.
When did the Moravians arrive in North Carolina?
The Moravians began to arrive in 1753, one year after a party of Moravian brethren from Pennsylvania purchased a tract of land in modern-day Forsyth County. The peak period of the settlement of North Carolina lasted from about 1730 until the American Revolution.
What is a Coastal Plain?
As its name suggests, a coastal plain is a geographic area along the ocean. It is flat and low-lying, and other landforms typically divide a coastal plain from the remainder of inland areas. In North America, coastal plains stretch from Cape Cod in the New England region of the United States, all the way south to Florida and to the Mexican border.
The Coastal Plain of Georgia
The Coastal Plain of Georgia takes up approximately 60% of the state in terms of surface area, and comprises the southern portion of the state. The climate is fairly mild throughout the year, with minimal freezes and very warm temperatures in the summer.
Geology of the Coastal Plain Region of Georgia
Coastal plains were formed millions of years ago as Pangea split apart. In fact, the fall line was once along the Atlantic Ocean. The sediment in this region consists of older sediment near the fall line, with younger sediment layered upon toward the south and east.
Characteristics of Coastal Plains in Georgia
The Georgia coastal plains have several interesting features that make this area an important region to the southeastern United States. These characteristics include barrier islands, water features, and the role of the plains in human activities.
What were the changes in the settlement pattern?
As the twentieth century progressed, depression and dust bowl conditions modified the settlement pattern, initiating significant changes that continue to the present. Rural free mail delivery led to the discontinuance of many of the open-country post offices. Farm consolidation led to the abandonment of many section-line roads, and operations that were originally farms became ranches. Removal of much of the rural population led to the consolidation of rural schools and churches. The advent of larger railroad steam engines, and then of diesel engines, decreased the need for water-tower villages–only the grain elevator survives in many diminished places. Additionally, improved highways and the use of trucks doomed many of the branch railroads and the villages they served.
What are the settlement patterns of the Great Plains?
The settlement patterns of the Great Plains reflect the sum total of the effects of these ongoing processes. Native Americans, who only 150 years ago were the region's sole inhabitants, have been relegated to relatively small areas. Throughout the region a pattern of large-scale farms is interspersed with abundant artifacts ...
How many acres were homesteaders in the nineteenth century?
In most areas, homesteaders in the nineteenth century located on dispersed farms of a quarter-section (160 acres). There were occasional interspersed rural schools, churches, and post offices. Initial building construction often utilized native sod, since lumber was not available.
How did the pioneers divide the grasslands of North America?
The pioneer settlement process divided the grasslands of North America into a vast checkerboard where squares were separated by section lines, which became roads, field divisions, county lines, and even state lines. The artificially imposed matrix of the U.S. Public Land Survey System, originating with the Ordinance of 1785, obliterated the natural landscapes known to the Native Americans. Six-mile-square townships were divided into thirty-six one-mile-square sections of 640 acres. European-style strassendorf villages or earlier New England–style village commons were virtually unknown, since the Homestead Law of 1862 required that homesteaders live on the land they claimed.
What are the Plains people?
The original Plains peoples, the Native Americans, remain an important and rapidly growing component of the region's population, especially on the Northern Plains and in Oklahoma. On the reservations, residential villages of Native American s are interspersed with farms, often occupied by European Americans, which were homesteaded as "surplus" lands or purchased as allotments in the decades following the Dawes Act of 1887. On some reservations, for example the Devils Lake Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, more than three-quarters of the land is owned by non-Natives.
What is the dominant pattern of settlement in the Great Plains?
The dominant settlement patterns of the Great Plains of the United States reflect both an initial 1800s pioneer landscape and subsequent changes: the evolution of the region's landscape is a continuing process. The pioneer settlement process divided the grasslands of North America into a vast checkerboard where squares were separated by section ...
How did the railroads affect the Plains?
The initial village pattern consisted of service centers at critical stream fords and at the intersections of wagon and horse trails. As railroad expansion spread a vast web of iron rails across the Plains, new sites emerged, since steam locomotives required water every eight to ten miles. These watering spots became the nuclei from which permanent villages, towns, or cities emerged. Here sprouted railroad depots, water towers, grain elevators, stockyards, stores, schools, and churches– facilities to enable the dispersed homestead farmers to obtain their supplies, market their products, and provide for their basic living needs. Early communities vied with each other for the right to be the county seat, and occasionally heated battles occurred. Such a role was perceived as essential if a place was to become dominant in the future urban hierarchy.
What is the pattern of settlement?
Settlement patterns are the ways in which human settlements are distributed across the earth’s land, including the locations of cities, towns and even individual homes. Where people settle is determined by a wide range of factors related to both nature and human society.
Why is climate important for settlement?
One of the most basic factors affecting settlement patterns is the physical geography of the land. Climate is key, because if a place is too dry, too cold or too hot, it’s more difficult for large numbers of people to settle there, especially if they make their living from farming. The land itself is important too because some types of soil are much better for agriculture than others, or they support different types of crops. Though modern transportation allows people to settle farther from where their food is farmed, places with wet, mild climates are still more densely populated than places that are very dry or very cold.
How did the settlements of the 1800s affect the world?
Settlement patterns have always been affected by the technology available to settlers, and especially by methods of transportation. In the past, when boats were the best way to transport goods and people, most major settlements were located next to the sea or rivers. In fact, the world’s biggest cities today are still located next to water, though transportation technology has allowed inland regions to be populated too. In the 1800s, the American West and other parts of the world saw settlements spring up along the newly built railroads, and today highways and roads form an even bigger factor.
Why did settlers come to cities?
Historically, settlers often came in search of places to start farms, and later they came to cities to look for jobs.
What are settlement patterns?
Settlement patterns are patterns that take shape to conform to the geographical environment. Examples of settlement patterns include nucleated (structures are close to one another), dispersed (structures that are spread apart), and linear (structures are parallel to the geographical feature; they are in lines).
How to get a picture of a settlement pattern?
You can best get a picture of a settlement pattern from an elevated position, in which you can look down and clearly see how a settlement is laid out and get an idea of where people settled by looking at maps to view population density and the locations of settlements. Let's take a closer look at the geographical patterns ...
What is the Indo-Gangetic Plain?
The Indo-Gangetic Plain is a belt that stretches across north-central India and includes the three major rivers, the Ganges, the Indus, and Brahmaputra River and their valleys, which are an invaluable source for agriculture, food and water, and water transportation.
Why do you think people decided to build a community in that specific location?
Why do you think people decided to build a community in that specific location? Geography is often a major factor in deciding where a group of people settle. People need access to natural resources to build their homes and other infrastructure, to land that can provide food and water, and to places that are easily accessible to those who live in them.
Why did the coastline change?
The coastline began to change, however, in response to natural proc- esses as well as human activities. The ancient Greeks and Romans were very capable engineers and built ports and harbors, along with their monumental architecture. Today many of these early ports are filled with sediment and are several miles inland from the present shoreline as a result of a thousand or more years of sedimentation. There was also the progressive awareness that living at the edge of the ocean presented significant hazards. Tsunamis have taken large death tolls historically, in Japan, in the Indonesia archipelago, and even on the Mediterranean coastlines. Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons have also taken their toll over the years throughout South Asia. Despite these risks, people have continued to be drawn to coastal areas. Cities have grown along with exposure to natural hazards and the impacts of the expanding populations on coastal environments and natural systems.
What were the benefits of the deltas and alluvial plains?
The deltas and alluvial plains adja- cent to coastlines provided flat, fertile land and water that made agricul- tural production possible, the mild climate made life easier and more comfortable, and the coastal waters provided access to the sea. Over time, trade and commerce would develop.
How long has sea level stabilized?
Within about a thousand years of sea-level stabilization, however, a transition seems to have taken place, with people beginning to migrate to coastal areas, where communities began to develop with significant increases in population, as well as burials that show the existence of social classes.
What triggered the transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer?
There are many ideas and hypotheses as to what triggered or led to the transition from our hunter-gatherer ancestors to farmers, among them the climate changes that took place when the last ice age ended and the modern Holocene epoch began (usually dated at about 11,700 years chapter 1
How many people live on the coast?
The number of people around the world occupying coastal regions is diffi- cult to determine, and the figures vary according to different sources and criteria: approximately 3 billion people living within 125 miles, 3 billion people living within 100 miles, or 3 billion people living within 60 miles, you can take your pick. Give or take a few hundred million, this is a big number, and it’s growing, producing an expanding crisis at the coast. In the United States in 2010, of the three million total square miles of land area (excluding Alaska), less than 20 percent (512,971 sq. mi.) is in
What cities were developed along the coast?
As civilization advanced and populations grew, coastal regions became progressively more important, and many of Europe’s large cities developed along or near coastlines as ports and centers of commerce. Athens, Venice, Rome, Lisbon, London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Stockholm come to mind.
Why did people come to the coast?
People came to the coast initially for short stays and then more recently for retirement, with progressively greater impacts. human impacts on coastal environments. Each of the chapters that follow focuses on a specific issue relative to greater human occupancy and use of coastal regions.
What are the features of Brazilian society?
The settlement of what is now Brazil began many thousands of years ago with the arrival of hunters and gatherers. At the time of European contact (in 1500), skilled farmers and fishers occupied the best lands of the Amazon and Paraguay river systems and most of the coastal plains, making up the bulk of the region’s two to six million native inhabitants.
What were the Brazilian highlands known for?
During the first two centuries of Brazilian colonization, little attention was paid to the nearly inaccessible and seemingly unproductive highlands, although parties of explorers, known as bandeirantes, traversed them from time to time, capturing Indians for slaves and searching for precious metals and stones.
What factors influence the location of rural settlements?
3.1 Some factors influencing the location of rural settlements are: 3.2 Rural Settlement Patterns. We all live in clumps of houses. You may call it a village, a city or a town; all are patterns of human settlements. The study of human settlements is essential to human geography because the form of settlement in any particular region reflects ...
What are some examples of planned settlements?
Sites that are not instinctively chosen by villagers themselves, planned settlements are established by governments by giving shelter, water and other infrastructural facilities on acquired lands. The plan of villagisation in Ethiopia and the canal communities in Indira Gandhi canal command area in India are some examples.
Why is the study of human settlements important?
The study of human settlements is essential to human geography because the form of settlement in any particular region reflects a human relationship with the environment. A human settlement is defined as a region populated more or less permanently. The houses may be planned or redesigned, buildings may be remodelled, functions may change, ...
What are the benefits of a wet point settlement?
Most water-based ‘wet point’ settlements have many benefits such as water for cooking, washing and drinking. Rivers and lakes can be used to water farmland. Water bodies also have aquatic living beings like fish which can be grabbed for diet, and traversable rivers and lakes can be used for shipping.
What is compact settlement?
Compact or Nucleated settlements: These settlements are those in which a large number of houses are constructed very close to each other. Such settlements grow along river valleys and in fertile plains. Communities are closely knit and share common professions.
What is the pattern of a circular village?
Circular pattern: Circular villages grow around lakes, tanks and sometimes the village is organised in such a way that the central part remains accessible and is used for keeping the animals to guard them against wild animals.
What are the activities of rural settlements?
Rural settlements are most intimately and directly associated with the land. They are controlled by primary activities such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing etc. The establishment’s size is relatively small.

The Albemarle
The Middle Coastal Plain
- In the late 1600s some settlers began crossing the Albemarle Sound to settle in the middle Coastal Plain, which stretches from the Albemarle Sound to present-day Duplin and Onslow Counties. By 1691 they had settled along the Pamlico River in Bath County. More settlers traveled down the coast to settle in present-day Craven County by 1703, Carteret County by 1708, and On…
The Cape Fear
- In the mid-1720s, the first permanent settlers arrived in the area around the lower Cape Fear River. Their arrival was due mainly to the efforts of South Carolina planterMaurice Moore and North Carolina governor George Burrington. Moore had come to North Carolina to help fight the Tuscarora Indians. He became interested in settling in the Cape Fear area and encouraged other…
African American Settlement
- African Americans, most of whom were slaves, greatly added to the population of the colony. By the time North Carolina was settled, slavery had developed in Virginia and South Carolina. White Virginians and South Carolinians who immigrated to North Carolina often brought slaves with them. Slaves were also brought from abroad. Available records of slaves imported from 1749 to …
Development and Conflict
- Differences in geography, economic interests, and settlement patterns divided the Coastal Plain and helped make each subregion different. Swamps, rivers, and poor roads made transportation, trade, and contact between them difficult. North Carolina lacked a unifying, common urban center such as Williamsburg in Virginia or Charleston in South Carolin...
The Coastal Plain of Georgia
- The Coastal Plain of Georgia takes up approximately 60% of the state in terms of surface area, and comprises the southern portion of the state. The climate is fairly mild throughout the year, with minimal freezes and very warm temperatures in the summer.
Geology of The Coastal Plain Region of Georgia
- Coastal plains were formed millions of years ago as Pangea split apart. In fact, the fall line was once along the Atlantic Ocean. The sediment in this region consists of older sediment near the fall line, with younger sediment layered upon toward the south and east. The layers alternate between marine and land sediment, due to the variations in sea...
Characteristics of Coastal Plains in Georgia
- The Georgia coastal plains have several interesting features that make this area an important region to the southeastern United States. These characteristics include barrier islands, water features, and the role of the plains in human activities.