They wanted the areas that produced more gold.
Wartime production and goals at home
It's important that we know where and how we came to be. For example we wouldn't really understand why you're a certain religion if we didn't know who settled the land and what happened. Not only that, but also a lot of things happened back then, a civil war, WWI and WWII, the Cold war, war of 1812, that made things what it is present day. Also history makes sure that we can honor people for freedom, such as Abe Lincoln who freed slaves. The point I'm making here is that history is a way to remember important events that have effected many things and many places and without keeping track of history (for example if we didn't keep track of the Constitution) we wouldn't have the somewhat peaceful society of today.
