America, 1840-1895: Expansion and Consolidation | AQA GCSE History (8145)

America, 1840-1895: Expansion and Consolidation

105 questions
9 subtopics
Paper 1
Paper 1

America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation is examined in Paper 1, Understanding the modern world.

It covers the geography of North America, why the early settlers went west and the challenges they faced, dealing with a different culture, Increasing conflict on the Plains, the background to the American Civil War, coming to terms with the Mormons, the aftermath of the American Civil War, the continued settlement of the west and the resolution of ‘the Indian problem’ after 1865.

Sample questions from America, 1840-1895: Expansion and Consolidation

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

The geography of North America

Which two mountain barriers had migrants to the Pacific coast to cross?

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The Rocky Mountains and then the Sierra Nevada.
Why the early settlers went west and the challenges they faced

What was the chief drawback of the Salt Lake valley, and how did the Mormons overcome it?

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It was too dry to farm, so they dug irrigation ditches to bring water down from the mountains onto the fields.
Dealing with a different culture

What did the Plains tribes believe about the land?

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That it was sacred and could be used but never owned or sold, which made treaties handing over territory meaningless to them.
Increasing conflict on the Plains

What caused Little Crow’s War in Minnesota in 1862?

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Payments for land the Santee Sioux had sold arrived late and rations ran out, so starving warriors attacked the agencies and nearby settlements.
The background to the American Civil War

What did John Brown attempt at Harpers Ferry in 1859?

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He seized the federal arsenal hoping to arm a rising of enslaved people, but he was captured within two days and hanged.
Coming to terms with the Mormons

What was the Utah War?

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The confrontation of 1857–58 between the Mormons and the federal government, settled without a battle when Brigham Young accepted a new governor and was pardoned.
The aftermath of the American Civil War

What were the Black Codes?

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Laws passed by southern states in 1865–66 that tied freed people to low-paid labour and limited where they could live, travel and give evidence.
The continued settlement of the west

Why was a claim of 160 acres often too small on the Plains?

Show the answer
The land was so dry that a family needed far more of it to make a living than the same acreage would have needed in the east.

The 9 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The geography of North America	The Great American Desert and Stephen Long's report, the mountain barriers, what Manifest Destiny claimed and how it shaped the war with Mexico and attitudes to the Plains Indians, and the Plains' natural advantages.	10
Why the early settlers went west and the challenges they faced	Brigham Young and the Mormon trek from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake valley and its irrigation, why pioneer farmers set out for Oregon and California, the dangers of the overland trail and the fate of the Donner Party, and the California Gold Rush and its lawless mining camps.	10
Dealing with a different culture	The Plains Indians' way of life, from the buffalo, the tipi and band government to their beliefs about land, counting coup and the Sun Dance, then the Indian Removal Act, the Permanent Indian Frontier and its collapse, and how the Gold Rush turned tolerance into conflict.	10
Increasing conflict on the Plains	The Fort Laramie treaty of 1851 and why it broke down, the policy of concentration, Little Crow's War, Sand Creek, the Bozeman Trail and Fetterman's Trap, and the second Fort Laramie treaty of 1868.	10
The background to the American Civil War	How North and South differed, the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas–Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, the abolitionists and Uncle Tom's Cabin, John Brown, Lincoln's election and secession, what Lincoln and Jefferson Davis did as war leaders, and what it did to civilians on both sides.	24
Coming to terms with the Mormons	The Mountain Meadows Massacre and who carried it out, the Utah War, the delayed execution of John D. Lee, the fight over plural marriage, and Utah's admission as a state.	10
The aftermath of the American Civil War	The Thirteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Freedmen's Bureau, the Black Codes, reconstruction and the carpetbaggers, sharecropping, the Ku Klux Klan, the shift of power from the states to Washington, and how reconstruction ended in 1877.	10
The continued settlement of the west	The Homestead and Timber Culture Acts, why 160 acres was too small, the land grants and the transcontinental railroad, and how the Homesteaders coped with the weather and the shortage of timber and water.	10
The resolution of ‘the Indian problem’ after 1865	The small reservations policy and the rival aims of extermination and assimilation, the slaughter of the buffalo, gold in the Black Hills and the Little Big Horn, the Dawes Act and why it left the tribes poorer, the Ghost Dance, Wounded Knee and the closing of the frontier in 1890.	11

America, 1840-1895: Expansion and Consolidation is 105 of the 1,889 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

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.