If I remember correctly they say that it was a famine in Sweden which drove a lot of people to seek their fortunes in the US which at the time gave away land to pioneers who where willing to cultivate the land. I don’t really remember the rest of it, but I think there was some kind of commission which where supposed to find way’s to stop the emigration. I’m not sure but I think they decided that universal suffrage was one way to do this. It becomes a bit fuzzy when there is no revolution or war which marks these changes.
There were actually two waves of emigration, around the 1870’s then another on around the turn of the century.
There may have been some free land for the first wave but none for the second wave. My grandfathers worked for years before they could buy their little farms.