I'm no historian/economist/geographer, but isn't it sufficient to invoke having a huge empty continent with vegetation, climate and soil suitable for agricultur

I'm no historian/economist/geographer, but isn't it sufficient to invoke having a huge empty continent with vegetation, climate and soil suitable for agriculture and human life activities in general, that only needed a bit of genocide to get rid of the low density previous occupants? N. hemisphere East-West wide continent and all that.