New York State Test Prep Social Studies 5 (grade 4) Revolutionary War in NY

New York was in a period of growth. People wanted to settle here, to make homes here, to build industry here. New settlers came to New York from other countries as well as from within the new country. The question is WHY?? What encouraged them to move here and build factories here?

New York's location was ideal for colonial transportation. In order to transport goods and make trade easier, they had to be able to move the goods! Remember, there were no cars, busses, or subways back then! People had to rely on water, horseback, and foot travel. New York had all three methods of transportation already in place.

Native American Trails became important paths of transportation. People could move goods easily from one place to another.

The Native Americans had great foot and horse trails. State Route 5 going across New York State was originally a foot path for Native Americans. They also had extensive routes throughout the Finger Lakes Region. This made carrying or moving goods from one place to another easier. Foot paths (eventually roads) were used if a waterway was not available, as transportation by water was usually cheaper and therefore preferred.

New York has many natural waterways.

But New York did have many natural waterways to use: rivers, lakes, and an ocean. Travel by boat (or canoe) was usually far cheaper than carrying goods by land. New York was fortunate to have many rivers, almost linking its great lake, Ontario, to the harbor in New York and its ocean, the Atlantic. This made transporting goods to and from Europe and Asia affordable via the waterways. Of course, the canal system was later built to make waterways where there weren't any before!

Another plus for all the water in New York was the availability of power for factories. Many mills were built along the rivers and falls and used water power. This certainly encouraged the building of factories and therefore encouraged industrialization. Cities tended to grow along waterways. They had a cheap source of power and a cheap form of transportation to move goods.

But not only did the natural resources (flat land and water) dictate (tell) where the cities would grow, they also said where they wouldn't grow and that was in mountainous regions. New York has two major mountain ranges: the Adirondacks and the Catskills. This was not an easy area to get to, or to live in, or to set up factories near! So the mountainous areas stayed uninhabited. People didn't want to live there, and most people couldn't make a living there. Two exceptions to this were the paper mills and lumber industry which, because of the abundance of trees, were built near or in the mountains of New York.

The following is a list of cities and the geographical reasons that they probably are where they are:

CITY	Natural Resource
Buffalo	on Lake Erie and Niagara River
New York City	mouth of Hudson River and natural harbor on Atlantic Ocean
Albany	on Hudson River and Mohawk River
Syracuse (known as the Salt City)	on Onondaga Lake and near Salt Mines

In summary, New York's many natural resources( lakes, rivers, mountains, trees, salt) have influenced where people have chosen to live and where industries have flourished.