The American West, c1835-c1895 | Edexcel GCSE History (1HI0)

The American West, c1835-c1895

136 questions
9 subtopics
Paper 2
Paper 2

The American West, c1835–c1895 is examined in Paper 2, Period study and British depth study.

It covers Indigenous peoples of the Plains: their beliefs and ways of life, migration and early settlement, conflict and tension, c1835–c1862, the development of settlement in the West, ranching and the cattle industry, changes in the ways of life of Indigenous peoples of the Plains, changes in farming, the cattle industry and settlement, conflict and tension, c1876–c1895 and Indigenous peoples of the Plains: the destruction of their ways of life.

Sample questions from The American West, c1835-c1895

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

Indigenous peoples of the Plains: their beliefs and ways of life

What work fell to women in a Plains camp?

Show the answer
They raised the children, butchered the meat, dressed the hides and put up the tipi, which belonged to them.
Migration and early settlement

What did the Gold Rush do to California?

Show the answer
Its population grew so fast that San Francisco became a city within a few years and California entered the Union as a state in 1850.
Conflict and tension, c1835–c1862

What did the government promise in return at Fort Laramie in 1851?

Show the answer
Yearly payments of goods worth $50,000 and protection from white settlers who crossed the line.
The development of settlement in the West

How far had the network grown by the 1890s?

Show the answer
Several more routes crossed the continent and branch lines reached across the Plains, so few settled areas lay far from a station.
Ranching and the cattle industry

What was John Iliff's contribution to ranching?

Show the answer
He built up huge herds on the open range of Colorado and sold beef to railroad crews and reservations, showing cattle could be raised on the northern Plains rather than only driven across them.
Changes in the ways of life of Indigenous peoples of the Plains

What was a reservation intended to achieve?

Show the answer
It confined a nation to a fixed area away from the trails and settlers, where it could be made to farm and live in white ways.
Changes in farming, the cattle industry and settlement

Why was the open range already in trouble before the winter of 1886–87?

Show the answer
Too many cattle had been put on the grass, beef prices were falling, and the summer of 1886 was hot and dry so the animals went into winter weak.
Conflict and tension, c1876–c1895

Why does the gunfight at the OK Corral raise doubts about law enforcement in the West?

Show the answer
Men holding public office used it to settle a private feud, the court then cleared them, and the town itself could not agree who the criminals had been.

The 9 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Indigenous peoples of the Plains: their beliefs and ways of life	Bands and their councils, warrior societies, the uses of the buffalo, the tipi, women's work, the treatment of the old, attitudes to land, counting coup, how wealth and standing were measured, and beliefs about nature: Wakan Tanka, the sacred circle, vision quests, the Sun Dance, medicine men and respect for the buffalo.	17
Migration and early settlement	The Oregon Trail, the push from the east after 1837, Manifest Destiny, the forty-niners and California, the Donner Party, the Mormons from Nauvoo to Salt Lake under Brigham Young, sod houses, water and mining camps.	14
Conflict and tension, c1835–c1862	The Permanent Indian Frontier and why it broke down, the Fort Laramie agreement of 1851 and its failure, the Indian Appropriations Act and reservations, and lawlessness in the mining camps: claim jumping, vigilance committees, miners' meetings and the federal government's few judges and marshals.	14
The development of settlement in the West	The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific meeting at Promontory Summit in 1869, the railroad workforce, railroads and settlers, the Homestead Act and its weaknesses, sodbuster ploughs, wind pumps, dry farming, barbed wire, the Timber Culture Act, and town marshals, sheriffs, posses and federal law.	20
Ranching and the cattle industry	The value of Texas longhorns, Goodnight and Loving, McCoy's Abilene, John Iliff on the northern Plains, railroads and the shifting cow towns, the cowboy on the long drive and on the ranch, round-ups, quarrels with homesteaders, Texas fever and barbed wire.	13
Changes in the ways of life of Indigenous peoples of the Plains	The damage done by railroads, ranching, gold prospecting and disease, dependence on rations, reservations and the policy of concentration, the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, the weakening of chiefs, Little Crow's War of 1862, Sand Creek in 1864 and Red Cloud's War of 1866–68.	17
Changes in farming, the cattle industry and settlement	Turkey Red wheat, machinery and wind pumps, farming as a business, the winter of 1886–87 and the end of the open range, the cowboy's fate, the Exodusters, the Oklahoma Land Rush and the closed frontier.	17
Conflict and tension, c1876–c1895	Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War, Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral, range wars and the Johnson County War of 1892, the return of war to the Black Hills, Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn in 1876 and its consequences, and the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee in 1890.	14
Indigenous peoples of the Plains: the destruction of their ways of life	The slaughter of the buffalo and the part played by the railroads and the army, reservation agents and reservation life, the banning of the Sun Dance and other customs, the boarding schools, and the Dawes Act of 1887 and its effects.	10

The American West, c1835-c1895 is 136 of the 2,881 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.