The important natural resource in West Africa that the Songhai Empire controlled was salt.
A.) Salt mines in the sahara desert is the answer.
New states were added, population grew in the territories, and cattle-ranching industry grew.
The Homestead Act provided a reward and reason for settlers to move West. With expanding population in the East, the West offered more space and cheap land. Many white immigrants moved West, willing to take the risk of settlement. This population increase caused more innovation in the West as well as an expansion of States in the Union.
That answer might be in the book cant find it anywhere
