It benefited in numerous ways but mainly it and maybe most importantly it gave them the access to the China trade. The Pacific route was also Spain's exclusively for a certain period of time and there was also a great need for silver in China which was supplied by the Spaniards from their silver mines.
Geography affected the way that early societies and cultures developed in the early Americans because the Native societies lived off of the land and developed a special relationship with the land which is shown through their religious and cultural beliefs. The immigrant populations societies and cultures were also impacted by geography in that they began developing the coastal regions and places that had access to river ways and then moved their development inland over the centuries. The land played an important role in the ways that each society sought to grow and develop in regards to how they viewed the land.
