How does geography influence our values in the United States?

We just finished our look at Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and one of the key points that we studied was the influence the geography of the regions played in culture, religion, and the optimism of the people. Do you think that the geography of the United States has any affect on our culture, values, or traditions? The U.S. is known for loving freedom, democracy, and taking good ideas and invention and improving upon them. We are a country, in which, tolerance, speech, religion, and equality, though not always valued, have become increasingly important. Did our geography have anything to do with this?