The Homestead Act of 1862 provided that any adult citizen (or person intending to become a citizen) who headed a family could qualify for a grant of 160 acres of public land by paying a small registration fee and living on the land continuously for five years. If the settler was willing to pay $1.25 an acre, he could obtain the land after only six months’ residence.
But the law did not provide the new beginning for urban slum dwellers that some had hoped; few such families had the resources to start farming, even on free land. The grants did give new opportunities to many impoverished farmers from the East and Midwest, but much of the land granted under the Homestead Act fell quickly into the hands of speculators. Also, over time, the growing mechanization of American agriculture led to the replacement of individual homesteads with a smaller number of much larger farms.
The estimated interest rate, monthly payment, and total closing costs for the loan
The global economy affects the foreign policy of nations because there are trade agreements that mutually benefit nations. Before the economy was truly global, nations would figure out how to get resources through violence. Wars would wage over small parcels of land with rich materials, but the global economy allows for nations to cooperate for a mutual agreement that gives one nation more money and another nation more resources, without the cost of human lives.
