New England and the Chesapeake region were both settled by the English, yet by 1700 the region became two distinct societies. Why did this occur?

The motivations, religion and economies of the two regions
were different from the very beginning.  The Chesapeake colonies were Royal colonies and
Single Proprietorship Maryland, all cash crop economies based largely on tobacco farming
and slave labor.  The main motivation for Virginia and the Carolinas being settled was
simple economic profit. 

In New England, you had religious
diversity and a subsistence economy with few actual social ties to Mother England.  As
their economy would not sustain cash crops (poor soils, the wrong climate and lack of a
real river system), they developed into merchants, yeoman farmers and fisherman that did
not have such sustained trade with Great Britain.  Their religious discrimination in
England had prompted them to come to the colonies and establish havens for Puritans and
Quakers, as well as others, and many wished to have little to do with the King or his
Anglican Chesapeake colonies.

Finally, there was a
considerable physical distance between the two regions and no real road system by 1700,
so they were socially isolated from each other except for the port
cities.