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Question: What caused people to want to go West in the 1840s!?
I'm doing some research on the westward expansion, and I need to know what was the economic conditions like in the 1840s that made people want to go west!.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
There was a serious depression beginning in 1837, as a result of the economy being too dependent on the cotton market!. When the bottom dropped out of the cotton price, the bottom dropped out of everything else!.

The thing about America in the 1840s is that there is always a commodity that will hold its value, usually, in fact even increase in value as you work it, and that is land!.

One thing Gerald O'Hara said in Gone With the Wind that rings true, "land, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, is the one thing that matters, the one thing you can count on"!.

There's an example, the currency in Georgia in the 1860s was virtually worthless, but that red soil of Tara still had some value!. It could still grow enough to feed the people living on it, black and white, and it held the potential to raise a cash crop after all the troubles were over!.

In the forties, the 1840s, there was land in the west available at a cost of about $1!.25 cents per acre!. In other words, you could get a quarter section, that's one fourth of a square mile, for $200!.00!. You could get 40 acres, for only $50!.00!.

In the right circumstance, if you found a speculator who would make the right deal, you could put down a deposit, and "prove" the land, that is build a house and plow the fields, and plant a crop, and the revenue from the cash crop could pay off the note in a few years!. And corn, wheat, barley, or tobacco will have a monetary value even if it's in a strictly barter market!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

manifest destiny From 1840 to 1860 300,000 people traveled west for adventure, fortune, and civil liberties, due to economic depression!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

They wanted land and a chance to become wealthy through ranching, farming and mining for minerals like gold and silver, etcWww@QuestionHome@Com