Humanism is a big role in this. Humanism is the idea of thinking more about the individual (The things people felt and created were just as important as faith and religion)
Since philosophers were now thinking with humanism influencing them, they thought more about the individual person themselves and their role in society. Unlike earlier thinkers who thought about people as a whole and the Church's role in society. People began to come up with the ideas that the Church is not the answer to everything.
While it was true that western lands were somewhat more fertile than the now-depleted lands of the East, many of the pioneers were attracted to the frontier in order to speculate in land, i.e. to purchase large quantities of cheap government land and to sell it at a profit to later comers
A. Americans wanted to protect their land
