Chapter 3 Section 2 Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking Chapter 3 Section 2

How successful were government efforts to promote settlement of the Great Plains?

- the growth in population on the Great Plains

- the role of railroads in the economy

- the Homestead Act

The efforts of the government to promote the settlement of the Great Plains were somewhat successful. They started by ensuring that people would have a good way to travel by giving land grants to the railroad companies, and then capitalized on the new transportation systems by passing the Homestead Act so that people came flooding into the West. The population growth of the West Certainly grew, but the land was not always put to the use it was meant for. For example, only a small amount of land meant for families in the Homestead Act was used by the people it was intended for. The government’s attempts were certainly successful, but there were a few drawbacks such as those.

The federal government made large land grants to the railroad companies so that they could lay tracks in the West (p. 420). One of the grants made it so that the companies Union Pacific and Central Pacific would receive 10 miles of land for every mile of track they put down. The competing companies made railroads that reached to Utah by 1869, and by the time that 15 years were past, the country had 5 transcontinental railroads, meaning that the West and the East Coasts were connected. The companies then began selling pieces of their land to settlers, and even sent agents to Europe to find potential buyers (p.421). By first giving the railroad companies land grants, the government ensured that settlers would be more willing to move to the Plains because of the ease of travel. It would be an easy journey, if you were a farmer, you would be able to ship your crops, and the land was being sold for 2 to 10 dollars an acre by the companies.

Now that the land was so accessible for people wishing to move West with the railroads, the government increased interest in Western land by passing the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act was a piece of legislation that offered 160 acres of free land to each head of household, and from 1862 to 1900, about 600,000 people took advantage of the government’s offer. However, much of the land was used by railroads and businesses for their own gain, and only about 10% of the land was used by the families it was intended for, and not all of the land was fertile. In some areas, more than 160 acres of land would be needed to make farming worthwhile (p,421). While these problems made the Homestead Act less successful, more legislation was passed to strengthen it, and in 1889 the government gave away a huge amount of land in what is now Oklahoma, and 2 million acres of land was claimed in less than a day in a huge land rush.

Despite the small problems of the Homestead Act, the proof of the government’s success was obvious in the West’s population rise: in 1850, only about 1% of the nation’s population was living in the West, and by 1900 the number was almost 30%. 19 million acres of government land had been purchased by 1880, and then there was all the land that had been given away to add to that (p. 422).

Though some of the government’s attempts to promote settlement of the Western Land were not 100% successful, the numbers do not lie; the fact that the nation’s population living in the West went from 1% to 30% in less than 50 years is not unimpressive. It was well thought out, and a large amount of people settled on the Plains and in the Western Lands.