How Did Railroad Influence The Development Of Western Expansion

659 Words3 Pages

There was a significant increase in population and migration in the West with the frontier settlement. Not only this but there was also a desire for more revenue for their families to be able to eat, and to also buy land. Railroads also had a huge influence in the United States development; it helped to connect the Central and Eastern part of United States to the West. With the Congressional appropriation of funds, many corporations agreed to build the railroad for the right of land in the West. With more railroads being built, it helped to establish the United States, and industries in the West used the railroads to connect industry to retail markets in Eastern United States. Without railroads, it would have been hard for the Western States to expand. …show more content…

Farmers and miners would not be able to get their crops to the market because most of the Americans lived east, and the only way for them to get it across the country were the railroads. Gold also played a role in developing United States. Known as the Forty Niners, one hundred thousand U.S. citizens moved West to find gold at Sutter’s Mill to make money. The gold rush played a factor in the Western Expansion. The Western expansion also guided by the Homestead Act, which offered citizens 160 acres of free land in the west, if you lived there for 5 years. The Homestead Act brought many people to Western areas and was a major role in U.S. development. As a result of all of this, many miners moved to the West with ambition to earn more money; also settlers migrated west for new land and this helped with United States