Question

Explain how land grants accelerated the development of the railroad system in the United States

Answer 1

Answer:

• Around four transcontinental railroad systems were built using land grants allocated by the federal government.  
• Congress allowed the allocation of government land to be given to different companies for the establishment of railroads, tracks or even buying or selling of this land.  
• These steps enabled easy financing of the companies who wanted to build a proper railway system without getting burdened.
• But, many independent railway tracks were also set up by the smaller companies. Hence, they had to purchase the land from private owners and build small railway systems on it.
• Many people opposed this policy of the government and denied to give their land up for this purpose.

Answer 2

Answer:

By directly providing land grants to Railroad companies, the United States government gave a direct incentive to explained the railroad network

Explanation:

As the United States increased it's territory, there were stark differences between the populated and develop North-East of the country and the newly acquired states in the South and the West.

To encourage settlement of more people, the government started to provide grant land to individuals who would set up new farms. This saw thousands of people, moving to new places and building small villages from scratch.

After this, the government provided large land grants to railway companies. While these lands did not have a lot of agriculture value, they did encompass numerous towns and villages.

With free land, Railway companies could see the potential in investing in railroads and connecting different population centres.