how do the major physical features of the united states influence where and how people live

Answer 1

Physical features are the main deciding factors for where and how people live in the US. Geography decides what is capable in a given area economically, which then drives who moves there and what type of lifestyle they will live. For example, in the early colonial era of the US, Southern states had good soil and a temperate climate. This meant that crops grew well. Farming, particularly large scale cotton and tobacco plantation style farming, proliferated. The need for workers, and the prevalence of tropical diseases in the American South that African slaves often had immunity for, pushed for the forced importation of African slaves into these areas. Some states, like South Carolina, even had a larger slave population than free/White population. Meanwhile, the cold temperatures and poor soil in the North led to a manufacturing based economy. Instead of African slaves being forced into these areas, many poor European immigrants began to move to this area for jobs in factories after the Industrial Revolution took off in America. Other areas, like the mountains of West Virginia, and states like Ohio, had lots of coal and iron ore - this led to a large mining and industrial sector. People moved into these areas for these jobs and they experience boom times. However, as more and more factory jobs were moved overseas, these areas lost their factories and mines - and now there is a larger problem of unemployment and poverty in this "rust belt."