to encourage settlement, the federal governement passed a law the permitted settlers to buy land for small?

Question

amounts of money if they lived on that land. was the law called the homestead act, settlement act, farmers' act, township act, or the desert land act?

Answer 1

The answer is the homestead act, so named because it allowed small farmers (primarily) to build homes on unclaimed land and "homestead" it to establish ownership.

This was one of the ways government encouraged the settlement of the west. The government of the time had an expansionist approach towards the west, and wanted to encourage settlement to ease pressure on the East Coast, consolidate land it had won in prior wars, and develop the economic resources.