Y216: the USA in the 19Th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803-C.1890 | OCR A-Level History A (H505)

Y216: the USA in the 19Th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803-C.1890

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

The USA in the 19th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803–c.1890 is unit Y216 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 westward expansion; causes and impacts, Native Americans, the growth of sectional tension 1850–1861, the Civil War. 80 recall questions across 7 subtopics.

Sample questions from Y216: the USA in the 19Th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803-C.1890

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

Westward expansion; causes and impacts: territorial growth, settlement and the development of the West

Why was the Gadsden Purchase made?

Show the answer
In 1853 the United States paid Mexico ten million dollars for a strip of desert south of the Gila in order to secure a practicable southern route for a transcontinental railway.
Westward expansion; causes and impacts: territorial growth, settlement and the development of the West

What effect did the discovery of gold have on the West?

Show the answer
The strike at Sutter's Mill in 1848 brought a rush of prospectors that took California to statehood within two years, and later finds such as the Comstock Lode drew mining camps and towns deep into the mountain territories.
Native Americans: Native American society, Tecumseh and Indian Removal

State what Tecumseh set out to achieve.

Show the answer
With his brother the Prophet he tried to unite the peoples of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys in a confederacy that would hold land in common and refuse all further cessions to the United States.
Native Americans: Native American society, Tecumseh and Indian Removal

What did the Supreme Court decide in the Cherokee case of 1832, and what happened?

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Chief Justice Marshall held that the Cherokee were a distinct nation on which Georgia's laws had no force, but the federal government declined to enforce the ruling and removal went ahead.
Native Americans: treaties and the ‘Indian Wars’ of 1860s/70s, resources, reasons for destruction

How did the search for resources break the treaties?

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Miners and settlers ignored reservation boundaries whenever minerals were found, and the confirmation of gold in the Black Hills after Custer's expedition of 1874 led the government to demand land it had guaranteed to the Lakota for ever.
Native Americans: treaties and the ‘Indian Wars’ of 1860s/70s, resources, reasons for destruction

State what the Dawes Act did.

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The 1887 act broke up communal reservations into individual allotments of a hundred and sixty acres held in trust for twenty-five years, with citizenship for the allottee and the surplus sold to white settlers.
The growth of sectional tension 1850–1861: Main differences between North and South by 1850

Why did the Mexican Cession revive the quarrel over slavery?

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Vast new territory had to be organised, and the Wilmot Proviso's attempt to bar slavery from all of it, though never passed, showed that northern opinion would resist further expansion of the institution.
The growth of sectional tension 1850–1861: Main differences between North and South by 1850

What was the significance of Uncle Tom's Cabin?

Show the answer
Stowe's novel of 1852 sold in hundreds of thousands and made the cruelty of slavery vivid to northern readers who had never seen it, while southerners denounced it as a slander.

The 7 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Westward expansion; causes and impacts: territorial growth, settlement and the development of the West	Recall questions on the Louisiana Purchase, Florida, Texas, Oregon and the Mexican War, manifest destiny, trails and railways, the Mormons, gold, cattle and plains farming, the Homestead Act and the wider effects of expansion.	20
Native Americans: Native American society, Tecumseh and Indian Removal	Recall questions on the diversity of Native American society, the Plains peoples and Five Civilized Tribes, Tecumseh, the Seminole War, the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokee case, the Trail of Tears and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.	10
Native Americans: treaties and the ‘Indian Wars’ of 1860s/70s, resources, reasons for destruction	Recall questions on treaties and the Indian Wars of 1860s/70s, resources, e.g. gold and actions of settlers, Dawes Act and Americanisation, reasons for destruction of Native American societies.	10
The growth of sectional tension 1850–1861: Main differences between North and South by 1850	Recall questions on main differences between North and South by 1850 including the breakdown of the Missouri Compromise, sectionalism.	9
The growth of sectional tension 1850–1861: Republicans, Dred Scott, the 1860 election and secession	Recall questions on the Republican Party, Dred Scott, the Freeport Doctrine, Lincoln on slavery, John Brown, the Democratic split, the 1860 election, secession, failed compromise and the start of the fighting.	11
The Civil War: Lincoln and the Union, Davis and Confederacy	Recall questions on Lincoln and the Union, Davis and Confederacy, character, appointments, relations with ministers, states, organisation of war effort.	9
The Civil War: reasons for Union victory and naval blockade, international situation	Recall questions on reasons for Union victory including effectiveness of McClellan, Grant and Lee as military commanders, strategies, the significance of major campaigns and battles including Antietam, naval blockade, international situation.	11

Y216: the USA in the 19Th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803-C.1890 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.