Event:​ Homestead act Date:​ May 20, 1862 Summary:​ The Homestead Act was signed by Abraham Lincoln which stated that for anyone that never took arms against the United States could file an application to claim a federal land grant if they were 21 years or older which also included freed slaves and women. How it connects by theme: ​The homestead act really made a movement, and encouraged people to get land, and have more opportunities including developing farms.

Event: ​First Continental Railroad Date:​ May 10, 1869 Summary:​ ​A railroad that connected the eastern United States to the western United States. The railroad created a trade route to the far­east, and helped western expansion How it connects by theme: After the the Homestead Act was passed, people in America had more reason to move westward in order to gain land and start their own farms in order to gain economic opportunities. Waves of new migrants and immigrants reached the Great Plains, and they greatly increased the acreage under cultivation.

Event: ​“Rain follows the plow” Date: ​late 19th century Summary: ​The conventional name for a non­discredited theory of climatology that was popular throughout the American West and Australia during the late 19th century How it connects by theme: ​“ Rain follows the plow “ were four words used to encourage people to move west and to make the rumor that the middle of America was not good for farming disappear. After the homestead act was passed in 1862 and the end of the civil war in 1865 people moving into the Trans­Mississippi West increase , first by hundreds , then thousands , than by hundreds of thousands.

Event: ​Enlarged Homestead Act Date: ​1909 Summary: ​This act was passed by the early 1900s because much of the prime low­lying alluvial land along rivers have been homesteaded. How it connects by theme: ​An amendment to the homestead act , enlarging acre to the landowners to 320.

Event​: World War 1 (increases agricultural prices)

Date​: 1914

Summary​: World War I began on July 28, 1914, when Austria­Hungary​ ​declared war on Serbia. This seemingly small conflict between two countries spread rapidly: soon, Germany, Russia, Great Britain, and France were all drawn into the war, largely because they were involved in treaties​ ​that obligated them to defend certain other nations. Western and eastern fronts​ ​quickly opened along the borders of Germany and Austria­Hungary.

How it connects by theme​: Farmers increased production and used more land. They focused only on the crops that were needed and so they stop using other crops. This would lead for the lands to be drained from nutrients those crops needed. All this would help The Dustbowl to occur and would be a factor.

Event:​ Dust Bowl Date: ​1930’s Summary: ​ The Dust Bowl was one of the worst environmental disasters, When 3 million people left their farms during the drought and more than a million people moved to the west. The Dust Bowl had many severe dust storms that ruined US and Canadian farms. How It Connects By theme: ​With the dust bowl happening it devastated those farms and Encouraged people to move to the west and hopefully start a new farm.