During the 1920's and the years leading up to it, mostly through Manifest Destiny, people started to move to the Midwest. In the Midwest the land was barren and flat, it contained almost no trees. People decided to build their housing out of Sod bricks, these bricks contained soil from the Great Plains and Grass. This led to soil becoming looser due to less roots in the ground holding the soil in its place. This was further exemplified through farming upon the Great Plains. Farmers had to till the soil for their crops, which dug up roots in the ground. Plus, when they grew plants, as they grew the same plants needed nutrients were used by the plants, causing the land to lose them. These things all coagulated in the 1930's when a drought struck, turning the topsoil into, in many places, a fine powder that could be blown away with a slight breeze. As the winds went about, giant dust storms ravaged the Midwest, and moved as far as the Atlantic Ocean. This lead to the SCS or the Soil Conservation Service that helped regulate crops, and paid farmers not to grow certain crops. You can find more about the SCS with a simple search online.
The English and French were turning profits by growing tobacco in Virginia, fishing off the North Atlantic Coast, and trading furs from New England and Canada with Europe.
Answer: Christopher Columbus was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas.
