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How Did The Transcontinental Railroad Contribute To The Abandonment Of Free Land

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How Did The Transcontinental Railroad Contribute To The Abandonment Of Free Land
Offers of free land under the Homestead Act of 1862 that promised 160 acres to any citizen who settled for a period of 5 years. The construction of the transcontinental railroad facilitated the migration of settlers into the territories. Increasing industrial consolidation occurred between 1870 and 1900. Blizzards, tornadoes, grasshoppers, hailstorms, drought, prairie fires, accidental death, and disease were a few of the many struggles that settlers faced in their migration to the west. The railroads were granted huge swaths of land by both the federal and state governments and actively sold the land for profit to speculators. Speculators made buying land difficult for settlers heading west as they inflated the price of the best quality land. …show more content…
Land runs spurred by a lack of homesteads and overpopulation lead to stampedes and violence in Oklahoma. When barbed wire was invented in 1874 it revolutionized the battle business but also lead to the large scale dislocation of landless, many Mexican, cattle ranchers who were forced to take wage worker jobs. Large scale consolidation of land into the hands of a few large landowners lead to many becoming sharecroppers and migrant farm

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