Essay On The Westward Movement

During the mid-late 1800s, economic and industrial developments profoundly transformed the land and the peoples of the American West. Immigrants and non-Indians who longed for new opportunities in life settled there. This influx of westward movement was primarily initiated as a result of deliberate policy by the federal government. Since the United States government secured more land in central North America after the Louisiana Purchase and annexation of southern and western states (Boyer 317), the Republicans were eager to designate public plots of land (considered as Native American property) for independent farmers. By passing a series of acts in 1862 to encourage non Indians to expand to the west, the U.S. government guided non-Indians
For example, the Homestead Act granted ownership of up to 160 acres of land to any citizen that was able to farm in it for 5 years, and around 400,000 families went to do so (Boyer 442). The Morrill Act granted millions of acres of federal land to states to promote education by constructing universities (Boyer 442) . Unfortunately, since so many prospective migrants took advantage of the government’s policies, they ran into ownership issues with Indians and took 12 million acres of land from them in Oklahoma (Boyer 442). Homesteaders were faced with more problems in the Great Plains, since they needed to make use of the land to pay for their supplies and transportation, but it was not ideal for farming; it had scarce amounts of trees and a limited supply of water (Boyer 444).To help, the U.S.D.A. assisted new farmers by figuring out the best types of wheat for the Great Plains and teaching farmers innovative techniques of dry farming (Boyer 445). The combination of desperation from the new settlers to survive while facing new difficulties and the consistent guidance by the U.S. drove the technological and economical development in farming practices that eventually established suitable life in the American