The time period of 1872 until 1900 was called the Gilded Age. In this time period there was a lot of settlement going on in the West. There were more jobs for the settlers, and there was also more land to explore, claim, and build homes or businesses. America even had new people from other places, such as China and Ireland, that were coming to work for the railroads and the mining companies. There were many things that led to the settlement such as economic, social and cultural, and political factors.
Settlement in the West was caused by some economic factors such as railroads being built, gold and silver being discovered, and farming. The building of the railroads brought in the Chinese before the American government established the Chinese Exclusion Act, and they were able to do the work Americans did not want to do and for lower pay than what Americans would have wanted; and the railroad would help bring small businesses that people would want around the railroads. …show more content…
The Exodusters were a group of African American farmers who came to the West to farm, and who were able to escape the racism that was occurring in the Jim Crow South, with the help of the Homestead Act of 1862. America also had multiple different groups from other places that were pouring into America, such as the Irish and the Chinese who were coming to America in hopes to do better for themselves. Another group that helped with the settlement of the West was the Indians, because the American government was moving them off of their land and moving them further West, allowing American settlers to claim the new land. All these different groups helped with the settlement in the West for there were more farmers, more immigrants coming in, and more land from pushing the Indians off of their lands and onto