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What do our middle school texts emphasize as the 3 most important reasons we moved to the unsettled western territory in the 1800s?  This movement is know as what?

To the best of my knowledge, the movement was known as Westward Expansion. It was fueled in part by the explosion in population and the growth of cities in the East, as well as by the development of the railroad. The Gold Rush of 1849 and the various homestead acts also encouraged people to go west in search of a better, more prosperous life. Also, the physical size of the country itself had expanded with the acqusition of new territories in the West.

Westward Expansion is the name of the era where Americans started to settle the west, and the American government was gaining more and more territory through war, business deals, and pushing out Native Americans.

1.) Curiousity and exploration

2.) Gold Rush

3.) Railroad made it easier for people to travel out to the west.