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Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783

  • 12 subtopics
  • 34 things to know
  • Unit group 3
  • Thematic study and interpretations, one unit of twenty-one

What Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783 covers

The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783 is unit Y311 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-one options in unit group 3, the thematic study and historical interpretations; a student sits one of them. Its four key topics and three depth studies are Drivers of imperial expansion, the nature of colonial rule, the impact of Empire on Britain and its emerging colonies, the British Empire and European Relations, Elizabethan Privateers 1558–1603, Britain and its American colonies 1660–1713, Clive and the East India Company: India c.1730–1773. 384 recall questions across 12 subtopics.

Where it is assessed

Unit group 3

Thematic study and historical interpretations, one unit of twenty-one.

Check the OCR specification ↗

The 12 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

Why did the spice trade prove a disappointing imperial priority for England?

Evaluation

Why did Chesapeake planters shift from indentured servants to enslaved Africans in the later seventeenth century?

Key term

Explain the causes of Bacon's Rebellion in 1676.

Numbers

Outline what the Civil War and Interregnum contributed to imperial growth.

Evaluation

Give one clear success and one clear failure in achieving British imperial aims across the period.

Key term

How were taxes actually raised in the mainland American colonies before the 1760s?

Key term

Define the term nabob and explain why such men provoked anxiety in Britain.

Numbers

Why did the population of the thirteen colonies grow so fast?

Numbers

What were the main effects of empire on Native American peoples?

Who and when

How did victory in 1763 help cause the loss of America?

Evaluation

Why is the fight at San Juan de Ulúa in 1568 seen as a turning point?

Evaluation

Why did Charles II annul the Massachusetts charter in 1684?

Evaluation

What was the colonial experience of the war of 1689 to 1697?

Key term

Why was Buxar in 1764 arguably more decisive than Plassey?

Key term

What is the debate about whether British power in India was planned?

Who and when

Why did Elizabeth I back overseas ventures through private investors rather than royal fleets?

Key term

Name the British ports transformed by colonial trade.

Key term

What imperial grievance triggered the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739?

Who and when

What roles did privateer captains play in the Armada campaign of 1588?

Who and when

How did Court opinion divide over war and plunder at sea?

Key term

What happened to the last great privateering voyage of Drake and Hawkins?

Numbers

Name three colonies created or transferred in the Restoration period.

Key term

What provoked the crisis in Bengal in 1756?

Who and when

What did Clive and the Company gain immediately after Plassey?

Key term

Explain how the granting of a royal charter allowed the Crown to promote expansion without spending money.

Numbers

How did religious change in Britain feed imperial expansion?

Numbers

Name three chartered companies used to run English overseas trade, with their founding dates.

Key term

Why was the re-export trade so valuable to Britain?

Numbers

List the three Anglo-Dutch Wars with their dates.

Key term

Why is the Drake and Norris expedition of 1589 important to a balanced view of privateering?

Key term

How do historians disagree about whether Elizabeth had an imperial vision?

Key term

Which commodities were enumerated under the Navigation Act of 1660?

Numbers

Give two events from the war of 1702 to 1713 in North America.

Key term

State what was granted by the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765.

Take Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Mercantilism vs Letter of marque

    Mercantilism: the doctrine that colonies existed to supply the mother country and to be a market for it. Letter of marque: the commission licensing a private ship to attack enemy commerce.

  • Navigation Act vs Staple Act

    Navigation Act: the law requiring colonial trade to be carried in English ships. Staple Act: the law of 1663 requiring European goods bound for the colonies to pass through England first.

  • Culpeper's Rebellion vs Bacon's Rebellion

    Culpeper's Rebellion: the Carolina rising of 1677 against the collection of customs duties. Bacon's Rebellion: the Virginia rising of 1676 that began over frontier policy and turned against the governor.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why did Elizabeth I back overseas ventures through private investors rather than royal fleets?

    Model answer

    The Crown was short of money and wanted deniability in its dealings with Spain, so joint-stock and syndicate finance spread the risk while still delivering a royal share of the profits.

  2. 2

    Explain how the granting of a royal charter allowed the Crown to promote expansion without spending money.

    Model answer

    A charter gave a company or proprietor a legal monopoly and the right to govern a territory in return for private capital, so the Crown gained influence and revenue while investors carried the cost and the risk.

  3. 3

    State Francis Drake's single most celebrated achievement and give its dates.

    Model answer

    He completed the first English circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, returning with a vast haul of Spanish plunder.

  4. 4

    How did Walter Raleigh attempt to turn Elizabethan enthusiasm into permanent settlement?

    Model answer

    He organised the Roanoke colonies of 1585 and 1587 in the territory he named Virginia, both of which failed for lack of supply and support.

  5. 5

    Why is Robert Clive regarded as a driver of expansion of a different kind from the Elizabethans?

    Model answer

    He extended power through the East India Company's army and its revenue rights rather than through settlement, winning Plassey in 1757 and securing the diwani of Bengal in 1765.

  6. 6

    What was the North West Passage, and why did the English keep searching for it?

    Model answer

    It was a hoped-for sea route to Asia around the north of America, sought by Frobisher, Davis and Hudson because it would have bypassed Iberian control of the southern routes.

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Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783 revision questions

What does Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783 cover in OCR A-Level History A?
12 subtopics: drivers of imperial expansion: the crown, the adventurers and the search for trade, drivers of imperial expansion: contribution of domestic developments to empire, successes and failures, the nature of colonial rule: mercantilism, companies, plantations and colonial government, the impact of empire on britain and its emerging colonies: for britain, the impact of empire on britain and its emerging colonies: for colonies, the british empire and european relations: consequences of european alliances and rivalries, depth study: elizabethan privateers 1558–1603 — nature and extent of privateering, motives, depth study: elizabethan privateers 1558–1603 — attitudes, consequences and interpretations, depth study: britain and its american colonies 1660–1713 — restoration policy and the dominion of new england, depth study: britain and its american colonies 1660–1713 — colonial rebellions, wars and assemblies, depth study: clive and the east india company: india c.1730–1773 — the carnatic wars and plassey and depth study: clive and the east india company: india c.1730–1773 — buxar, the diwani and the regulating act. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783 organised?
By the OCR H505 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

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