Apples originated in one valley region in Asia actually but are very hearty and adapt quickly.
In fact the seeds within any type of apple won't grow up into the type of apple they came from. So you can't just go out and plant macintosh apple seeds and expect a macintosh apple tree to grow. Once the seeds have sprouted you need to take a small twig from an already grown tree of the type of apple you want and graft it into the new sprout (don't remember what this process is called). Then the new sprout will grow into the tree you want. If you don't you'll probably just get gnarly nasty apples.
Johnny Appleseed was a real person (I think?) back in the pioneer days who got very good at this 'art' and helped spread apple orchards throughout North America.