Colonizing America

In 1862 the U.S. government passed the Homesteading Act in order to encourage people to move west. Under the act people were offered 160 acres of free land. The only requirement was that they had to live on the land and farm it for at least five years. As a result of the 1862 act and later homesteading acts Native Americans were robbed of a huge proportion of their land in the American West.