Please don't put me in the dumbest ? of the day. I really am curious why there is so many tiny Eastern states as opposed to the larger Western States.
ANyone know?
Thanks

In New England it generally had to do with the colonial history of the area - who settled it, their relationship to neighboring colonies, etc. Bear in mind some of the first states (Virginia, which at the time included what is now W.Va., Georgia, New York) were enormous areas of land by European standards. Ohio, which was "the west" in those days was and remains a very large state. Eventually, improved transportation and communications meant places the size of Montana or Nevada could be administered effectively, but by that time the boundaries of the eastern states had already been set.

It's not a dumb question.

Thanks alot John.
You never know what to expect for a reply here. I had never really noticed it before but with all this trip planning it became very obvious all the different sizes. Its wierd because in Canada our largest provinces are in the East except the tiny ones on the coast. I think I best check out my own history for that one I should know the answer for that but I guess age erases some of the important stuff too. Looking forward to visiting 10 of your states this summer.
Thanks Again
Cheers,
Jan

My theory on this.... but note this is just a guess. Is that it relates to the colonies at first but then as we moved westward then we had to incorporate larger areas of land to have enough people to vote for statehood. I believe it requires a certain number of votes to become a state (hence why protectorites like Guam aren't states).

Please don't say anything nasty I said it was a guess!

Its too bad we have to kind of cringe before we hit that post my reply isn't it. I really appreciate your input.
I think the answer to this ? will be a lesson for many more than just myself
Thanks
Jan

Arguments. Rhode Island was created by a Pilgrim expelled from Mass.. Vermont/New Hampshire/Maine broke off from NY and Mass. because of disagreements. West Virginia left Virginia due to a little disagreement early in the decade of the 60'(1860's that is). Heck, almost had Tenn. split during that same disagreement.

Most of the eastern states started out as colonies on the coast and sort of spread out from there until they ran into other colonies, so since the places where colonists settled were relatively close to each other, you
ended up with lots of relatively small colonies.

When the US started annexing the west, they frequently just used lines of longitude or latitude to mark off huge chunks of what was basically empty land. That's also why the western states' borders have a lot of straight lines and right angles (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah) while the eastern states were, for the most part, delineated by natural boundaries like rivers or mountains and therefore are more irregularly shaped.

Also, areas with higher population densities are, for whatever reason, more likely to divide into smaller administrative units.

Another interesting question along similar lines is why the Spanish colonies in the Americas turned into so many small countries after independence, whereas Portuguese America all stuck together and turned into one really big country (Brazil).