Y206: Spain 1469-1556 | OCR A-Level History A (H505)

Y206: Spain 1469-1556

80 questions
8 subtopics
Non-British period study, one of twenty-four
Y201 to Y224

Spain 1469–1556 is unit Y206 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-four options in unit group 2, the non-British period study; a student sits one of them.

Its four key topics are Isabella and Ferdinand: government, Isabella and Ferdinand: religion, Charles I: government and religion, overseas policies and the economy. 80 recall questions across 8 subtopics.

Sample questions from Y206: Spain 1469-1556

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Isabella and Ferdinand: government — situation in Spain in 1469, control of the nobility and towns

Who challenged Isabella's claim to Castile, and with whose support?

Show the answer
Juana, Henry IV's daughter, whose legitimacy was widely doubted; she was backed by a section of the Castilian nobility and by Afonso V of Portugal, who married her and invaded.
Isabella and Ferdinand: government — law and order, finance, the union of the crowns and Spain in 1516

How did royal policy affect trade and the economy?

Show the answer
Wool exports were promoted through the privileged sheep-owners' guild, the Mesta, and merchant courts such as the Burgos consulado of 1494 organised the trade with Flanders, while internal customs barriers between the kingdoms were left standing.
Isabella and Ferdinand: religion — religious aims and the conquest of Granada

Explain what is meant by la convivencia.

Show the answer
It describes the long medieval coexistence in Spain of Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities, tolerated under their own law and paying for protection, which had already been eroded by the pogroms and forced conversions of the previous century.
Isabella and Ferdinand: religion — treatment of the Moriscos and Conversos, Inquisition and its impact

Why did the Morisco question remain unsolved?

Show the answer
Conversion was nominal and enforced, so a large community continued to speak Arabic and keep Muslim custom in private; they were distrusted as potential allies of the Ottomans and Barbary corsairs but were too numerous and too economically useful to remove.
Charles I: government and religion — succession, relations with the Spanish nobility and towns

Give two examples of Charles's reliance on foreigners that angered Castilians.

Show the answer
The Burgundian Chièvres dominated government and enriched himself, and the archbishopric of Toledo, the richest see in Spain, was given in 1518 to his nephew, a young foreigner; the regency was then left to Adrian of Utrecht.
Charles I: government and religion — religious developments and Charles’s abdication

Describe Charles's relations with Rome.

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They were often hostile: he fought Clement VII in the war of the League of Cognac, his unpaid troops sacked Rome in 1527 and imprisoned the pope, yet he was crowned by that same pope in 1530 and spent years pressing a reluctant papacy to summon a general council of the Church.
Overseas policies and the economy: Columbus and the discovery and explorations

Why was Hispaniola so important to early Spanish activity?

Show the answer
It was the first permanent base, the seat of Spanish government and the first bishopric in the Indies, and its placer gold and its parcelled-out native labour set the pattern that was carried to Cuba, Puerto Rico and the mainland.
Overseas policies and the economy: economic impact of the New World and foreign policy

Describe the condition of Castilian agriculture under Charles.

Show the answer
It struggled: grazing rights and entailed estates limited land use, a price ceiling on grain discouraged production, and a rising population meant that Castile had increasingly to import grain in bad years.

The 8 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Isabella and Ferdinand: government — situation in Spain in 1469, control of the nobility and towns	Recall questions on the situation in Spain in 1469, campaign to secure the throne by 1479, administrative methods, control of the nobility and towns.	10
Isabella and Ferdinand: government — law and order, finance, the union of the crowns and Spain in 1516	Recall questions on justice, royal revenue and the economy, the differences between Castile and Aragon, the extent of union, the New Monarchy debate, Ferdinand after 1504 and Spain at his death in 1516.	10
Isabella and Ferdinand: religion — religious aims and the conquest of Granada	Recall questions on the monarchs’ religious aims, royal control of church appointments, the title Catholic Kings, la convivencia, and the causes, cost, terms and significance of the war for Granada.	9
Isabella and Ferdinand: religion — treatment of the Moriscos and Conversos, Inquisition and its impact	Recall questions on treatment of the Moriscos and Conversos, the Inquisition and its impact.	11
Charles I: government and religion — succession, relations with the Spanish nobility and towns	Recall questions on the succession, administrative methods, inheritance and priorities by 1519, reliance on foreigners, relations with the Spanish nobility and towns.	10
Charles I: government and religion — religious developments and Charles’s abdication	Recall questions on religious developments, Charles I’s tolerance to Morisco traditions, relations with Rome, the Polyglot Bible, Illuminism and Erasmianism, Philip as Regent, Charles’s abdication.	10
Overseas policies and the economy: Columbus and the discovery and explorations	Recall questions on Columbus and the discovery and explorations of the Indies, the Caribbean, Hispaniola, Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico, Pizarro and the Conquest of Peru.	8
Overseas policies and the economy: economic impact of the New World and foreign policy	Recall questions on the economic impact of the New World on Spanish trade and the economy, domestic trade, industry and agriculture, foreign policy: aims and threats.	12

Y206: Spain 1469-1556 is 80 of the 6,240 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.