Why is the Intermontane West referred to as a land of discontinuous settlement as compared to the early patterns of Euro-American and Euro-Canadian settlement in the eastern United States and Canada?
What will be an ideal response?
Early Euro-American and Euro-Canadian settlement in eastern North America is referred to as a zone of continuous settlement. Since eastern North America has abundant rainfall and relatively flat topography, virtually all that land was cleared for agriculture except for a few remote areas. There was a continuous pattern of rural farm populations served by cities and towns that were in turn connected by a network of rail and road connections. Very few places in the eastern two-thirds of the United States are located more than five miles from a road, railroad, or navigable waterway.
In comparison, the Intermontane West is referred to as having discontinuous settlement because the rugged topography was unsuitable for continuous agricultural settlement. Large areas of the Interior West remained unsettled, with most of the population concentrated in a relatively small number of places best suited for mining or farming.
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