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2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877

  • 20 subtopics
  • 55 things to know
  • Component 2

What 2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877 covers

Option 2J is a depth study of the American Civil War era, taken as one of the Component 2 choices. It examines the widening divide between North and South, the failure to hold the Union together, the war itself and Reconstruction.

Where it is assessed

Component 2

A depth study, of which a student sits one.

Check the AQA specification ↗

The 20 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What constitutional provision served as the basis for states' rights by reserving powers not delegated to the federal government?

Key term

What military role did the president hold under the Constitution in the 1840s?

Key term

Which branch of government was responsible for conducting foreign policy in the 1840s?

Key term

How did judicial review affect both federal and state laws?

Key term

How did Northern agriculture differ from Southern agriculture by 1845?

Key term

Which social class was expanding in Northern society by 1845?

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What agricultural system organised Southern production by 1845?

Key term

What geographical line did the Missouri Compromise establish as the boundary for slavery?

Key term

What legislation did Congress pass to support federal authority during the Nullification Crisis?

Key term

What territories did the United States gain from victory in the Mexican-American War (1846–1848)?

Key term

What immediate controversy did the Mexican-American War victory trigger?

Key term

What was the Wilmot Proviso?

Key term

What change regarding slavery occurred in Washington D.C. under the Compromise of 1850?

Key term

How was the Texas boundary dispute settled in the Compromise of 1850?

Key term

What consequences did the Fugitive Slave Law impose on those who helped runaways?

Key term

What principle did the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 introduce to determine the status of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska territories?

Key term

Who were the 'Border Ruffians' and what did they do in Kansas?

Key term

What happened during the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in 1856?

Key term

Which political groups united to form the Republican Party?

Key term

How quickly did the Republican Party establish itself in the North between 1854 and 1856?

Key term

Who was Salmon P. Chase and what role did he play in the Republican Party?

Key term

What were the Lincoln-Douglas debates?

Key term

Who did the Constitutional Union Party nominate in 1860, and what was their platform?

Key term

Who was chosen as President of the Confederate States of America?

Key term

What military background did many Confederate officers possess that gave the South an early advantage in experienced leadership?

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In which branch of military service did the Confederacy initially hold an advantage, supported by Southern cultural traditions?

Key term

What was the approximate population of the Confederacy, and how did this compare to the Union's population?

Key term

What geographical advantages did the Confederacy possess in fighting the war?

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Why did King Cotton diplomacy fail to secure British intervention for the Confederacy?

Key term

What industrial advantage did the Union possess over the Confederacy?

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Who commanded Union forces in the Western Theatre and conducted the March to the Sea?

Key term

How did the Union's railroad network compare to the Confederacy's, and what advantage did this provide?

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What strategy did Grant pursue in his Overland Campaign of 1864?

Key term

What did the Union's total war strategy under Grant and Sherman target?

Key term

What types of physical destruction did the South experience during the war?

Key term

What economic losses contributed to Southern devastation after the war?

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What were the economic costs and benefits of the war for the North?

Key term

When was Lincoln assassinated?

Key term

What conflicting demands complicated prospects for reconciliation after the war?

Key term

Under Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan, what conditions allowed a Confederate state to form a new government?

Key term

How did Lincoln and Radical Republicans disagree over who should control Reconstruction?

Key term

Why was the Thirteenth Amendment considered necessary given the Emancipation Proclamation already existed?

Key term

Who was Thaddeus Stevens and what positions did he advocate?

Key term

What three key provisions did the Fourteenth Amendment establish?

Key term

Who was Andrew Johnson and how did he become president?

Key term

Who won the presidential election of 1868 and which party did he represent?

Key term

What were the main aims of Grant's presidency regarding the South and freedmen?

Key term

What issues caused conflict between Grant's administration and Congress?

Key term

What voting requirement did the Reconstruction Acts impose on former Confederate states seeking readmission?

Key term

Who were the Redeemers?

Key term

What happened to African American rights in the South as Redeemer governments gained power by 1877?

Process

What hardened positions over slavery in the late 1850s?

Process

How was Southern society and agriculture organised by 1845?

Process

What geographical and diplomatic position did the Confederacy hold?

Process

How did Sherman campaign, and what gave the Union economic strength?

Take 2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Popular sovereignty vs Free Soil

    Popular sovereignty: policy letting territorial settlers decide the slavery question. Free Soil: position opposing the extension of slavery into western territories.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What system of government divided powers between the national government and individual states in 1845 America?

    Model answer

    Federalism

  2. 2

    Under the US Constitution, what term describes the specific powers explicitly granted to the federal government?

    Model answer

    Enumerated powers

  3. 3

    What constitutional provision served as the basis for states' rights by reserving powers not delegated to the federal government?

    Model answer

    The Tenth Amendment

  4. 4

    What happened to powers not explicitly granted to the federal government under the constitutional framework?

    Model answer

    They were reserved to the states

  5. 5

    What military role did the president hold under the Constitution in the 1840s?

    Model answer

    Commander-in-chief of the armed forces

  6. 6

    Which branch of government was responsible for conducting foreign policy in the 1840s?

    Model answer

    The executive branch, led by the president

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2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877 revision questions

What does 2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877 cover in AQA A-Level History?
20 subtopics: federalism and states' rights, the northern economy by 1845, cotton, plantations and the southern economy, the missouri compromise and the nullification crisis, manifest destiny and the compromise of 1850, the fugitive slave law, abolitionism and pro-slavery arguments, the kansas-nebraska act and bleeding kansas, the formation of the republican party, dred scott, the lincoln-douglas debates and harper's ferry, the election of 1860, secession and fort sumter, confederate strengths and the union's numbers, lee, states' rights and king cotton, union strengths, lincoln, grant and sherman, the course of the civil war, 1861-1865, why the confederacy lost and the destruction of the south, the war's legacy and the death of lincoln, the emancipation proclamation and lincoln's plan, radical republicans and presidential reconstruction, grant's presidency and the fifteenth amendment and the reconstruction acts, scalawags and carpetbaggers. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is 2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877 organised?
By the AQA 7042 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

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