Which act encouraged westward settlement by granting 160 acres of land to heads of families for a small fee, with a requirement to develop the land over five years?

• A. Homestead Act of 1862
• B. Morrill Act
• C. Dawes Act
• D. Railroad Act

Answer: (A)

This question looks at how the government used land incentives to promote moving west and farming the frontier. The mechanism that matches this description is a law enacted in 1862 that offered 160 acres to heads of families for a small fee, with a requirement to improve and farm the land for five years. This designed-to-settle approach encouraged families to relocate west and develop new communities, helping to populate the plains and beyond.

Other acts had different aims: one funded the creation of land-grant colleges by transferring federal land to states; another aimed to divide tribal land into individual parcels as part of assimilation policies; and a separate act supported railroad construction by granting land to railroad companies, not to individual settlers.