<span>The answer is Widespread exploration was made possible in the 1400s by the growth in wealth in Europe as well as new technological developments in ship building that made traveling far distances more attainable.</span>
The Homestead Act of 1862 authorized United States Government to encourage the pioneers to provide them land in the West, on the conditions that they (settlers) had to build their own structures and had to live on the land for not less than five years
