North America's Western Frontier
Both the United States and Canada actively encouraged their citizens to populate their western frontier. The Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States and the Dominions Land Act of 1872 in Canada provided settlers with land in exchange for cultivating and population these territories. The governments completed transcontinental railroad lines to increase western access. Gold booms of California (1849) and British Columbia (1858), and Canada's liberal immigration policy also fostered westward migration and territorial expansion (see Figures 4.6 and 4.7 for maps of British Columbia and California).
Large numbers of immigrants from western, southern, and eastern Europe joined these groups in search of good agricultural land and resources.
Figure 4.7 Map of the United States.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_map_-_states_and_capitals.png
This work is in the Public Domain.