During the latter part of the 19th Century, westward-looking American settlers were able to acquire their land, thanks to federal policy – the Homestead Act.
The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, and went into effect the following year. In 1863.
Twenty-two years prior to the Homestead Act, we find the Preemption Act of 1841.
The Preemption Act enabled American settlers to claim up to 160 acres of federal land at a cost of $1.25 per acre.
So, inexpensive land acquisition – and westward expansion in early America, for that matter – had already been formal American policy…some twenty years before the Homestead Act became law-of-the-land.
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