OCR A-Level History A H505
Y101: Alfred and the Making of England 871–1016Unit group 1
Y102: Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest 1035–1107Unit group 1
Y103: England 1199–1272Unit group 1
Y104: England 1377–1455Unit group 1
Y105: England 1445–1509: Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VIIUnit group 1
Y106: England 1485–1558: The Early TudorsUnit group 1
Y107: England 1547–1603: The Later TudorsUnit group 1
Y108: The Early Stuarts and the Origins of the Civil War 1603–1660Unit group 1
Y109: The Making of Georgian Britain 1678–c.1760Unit group 1
Y110: From Pitt to Peel 1783–1853Unit group 1
Y111: Liberals, Conservatives and the Rise of Labour 1846–1918Unit group 1
Y112: Britain 1900–1951Unit group 1
Y113: Britain 1930–1997Unit group 1
Y201: The Rise of Islam c.550–750Unit group 2
Y202: Charlemagne 768–814Unit group 2
Y203: The Crusades and the Crusader States 1095–1192Unit group 2
Y204: Genghis Khan and the Explosion From the Steppes c.1167–1405Unit group 2
Y205: Exploration, Encounters and Empire 1445–1570Unit group 2
Y206: Spain 1469–1556Unit group 2
Y207: The German Reformation and the Rule of Charles v 1500–1559Unit group 2
Y208: Philip II 1556–1598Unit group 2
Y209: African Kingdoms c.1400–c.1800: Four Case StudiesUnit group 2
Y210: Russia 1645–1741Unit group 2
Y211: The Rise and Decline of the Mughal Empire in India 1526–1739Unit group 2
Y212: The American Revolution 1740–1796Unit group 2
Y213: The French Revolution and the Rule of Napoleon 1774–1815Unit group 2
Y214: France 1814–1870Unit group 2
Y215: Italy and Unification 1789–1896Unit group 2
Y216: The USA in the 19th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803–c.1890Unit group 2
Y217: Japan 1853–1937Unit group 2
Y218: International Relations 1890–1941Unit group 2
Y219: Russia 1894–1941Unit group 2
Y220: Italy 1896–1943Unit group 2
Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919–1963Unit group 2
Y222: The Cold War in Asia 1945–1993Unit group 2
Y223: The Cold War in Europe 1941–1995Unit group 2
Y224: Apartheid and Reconciliation: South African Politics 1948–1999Unit group 2
Y301: The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800Unit group 3
Y302: The Viking Age c.790–1066Unit group 3
Y303: English Government and the Church 1066–1216Unit group 3
Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437Unit group 3
Y305: The Renaissance c.1400–c.1600Unit group 3
Y306: Rebellion and Disorder Under the Tudors 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y307: Tudor Foreign Policy 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y308: The Catholic Reformation 1492–1610Unit group 3
Y309: The Ascendancy of the Ottoman Empire 1453–1606Unit group 3
Y310: The Development of the Nation State: France 1498–1610Unit group 3
Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783Unit group 3
Y312: Popular Culture and the Witchcraze of the 16th and 17th CenturiesUnit group 3
Y313: The Ascendancy of France 1610–1715Unit group 3
Y314: The Challenge of German Nationalism 1789–1919Unit group 3
Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945Unit group 3
Y316: Britain and Ireland 1791–1921Unit group 3
Y317: China and Its Rulers 1839–1989Unit group 3
Y318: Russia and Its Rulers 1855–1964Unit group 3
Y319: Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992Unit group 3
Y320: From Colonialism to Independence: The British Empire 1857–1965Unit group 3
Y321: The Middle East 1908–2011: Ottomans to Arab SpringUnit group 3
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.
- Drivers of imperial expansion: the Crown, the adventurers and the search for tradeRecall questions on royal charters and private investment, Drake, Raleigh and Clive, the North West and North East Passages, the spice trade and the importance of the West Indies.Open →
- Drivers of imperial expansion: contribution of domestic developments to empire, successes and failuresRecall questions on contribution of domestic developments to empire including religious developments, successes and failures in achieving imperial aims.Open →
- The nature of colonial rule: mercantilism, companies, plantations and colonial governmentRecall questions on mercantilism and letters of marque, chartered companies, plantations and labour, the Navigation and Staple Acts, the slave code and Royal African Company, religion, bases, Mughal grants, colonial taxation and law-making.Open →
- The impact of Empire on Britain and its emerging colonies: For BritainRecall questions on for Britain: political, socio-cultural and economic effects, including banking, speculation, population change, scientific and geographical knowledge, resources, products such as spices, sugar and tobacco, Royal Navy, personal and political prestige.Open →
- The impact of Empire on Britain and its emerging colonies: for coloniesRecall questions on for colonies: taxation, trade, economic developments, population change, political structures and internal power relationships, Native Americans, slavery, development of opposition and reasons for it e.g. American colonies, Jamaican Maroons, Mughals in India.Open →
- The British Empire and European Relations: consequences of European alliances and rivalriesRecall questions on the consequences of European alliances and rivalries on imperial developments and the impact of imperial developments on these alliances and rivalries.Open →
- Depth study: Elizabethan Privateers 1558–1603 — Nature and extent of privateering, motivesRecall questions on nature and extent of privateering in the Elizabethan era and relationship between privateering and imperial development, motives, methods, extent of success and impact of key individuals, including Drake and Raleigh.Open →
- Depth study: Elizabethan Privateers 1558–1603 — attitudes, consequences and interpretationsRecall questions on Elizabeth’s and the Court’s attitudes, the economic and military consequences of privateering, personal fortunes, the last Drake and Hawkins voyage, relations with Spain and the debates over empire and imperial vision.Open →
- Depth study: Britain and its American colonies 1660–1713 — Restoration policy and the Dominion of New EnglandRecall questions on the Restoration approach to America, new colonies, enumerated goods and the Plantation Duties Act, the annulled Massachusetts charter, the Dominion of New England and the Glorious Revolution in the colonies.Open →
- Depth study: Britain and its American colonies 1660–1713 — colonial rebellions, wars and assembliesRecall questions on the 1691 Massachusetts charter, Bacon’s and Culpeper’s rebellions, the wars of 1689 to 1713 in North America, Utrecht, forms of colonial government, the rise of assemblies and interpretations of the period.Open →
- Depth study: Clive and the East India Company: India c.1730–1773 — the Carnatic Wars and PlasseyRecall questions on the Company’s position around 1730, Mughal decline, the Carnatic Wars and Dupleix, Clive’s early reputation, the Bengal crisis of 1756, and Plassey and its immediate gains.Open →
- Depth study: Clive and the East India Company: India c.1730–1773 — Buxar, the diwani and the Regulating ActRecall questions on Buxar, the Treaty of Allahabad and dual government, Clive’s reforms, the Bengal famine, the Regulating Act and Clive’s treatment by Parliament, the Dutch, British aims and interpretations of Clive and Company rule.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Why did Chesapeake planters shift from indentured servants to enslaved Africans in the later seventeenth century?
Explain the causes of Bacon's Rebellion in 1676.
Outline what the Civil War and Interregnum contributed to imperial growth.
Give one clear success and one clear failure in achieving British imperial aims across the period.
How were taxes actually raised in the mainland American colonies before the 1760s?
Define the term nabob and explain why such men provoked anxiety in Britain.
Why did the population of the thirteen colonies grow so fast?
What were the main effects of empire on Native American peoples?
How did victory in 1763 help cause the loss of America?
Why is the fight at San Juan de Ulúa in 1568 seen as a turning point?
Why did Charles II annul the Massachusetts charter in 1684?
What was the colonial experience of the war of 1689 to 1697?
Why was Buxar in 1764 arguably more decisive than Plassey?
What is the debate about whether British power in India was planned?
Why did Elizabeth I back overseas ventures through private investors rather than royal fleets?
Name the British ports transformed by colonial trade.
What imperial grievance triggered the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739?
What roles did privateer captains play in the Armada campaign of 1588?
How did Court opinion divide over war and plunder at sea?
What happened to the last great privateering voyage of Drake and Hawkins?
Name three colonies created or transferred in the Restoration period.
What provoked the crisis in Bengal in 1756?
What did Clive and the Company gain immediately after Plassey?
Explain how the granting of a royal charter allowed the Crown to promote expansion without spending money.
How did religious change in Britain feed imperial expansion?
Name three chartered companies used to run English overseas trade, with their founding dates.
Why was the re-export trade so valuable to Britain?
List the three Anglo-Dutch Wars with their dates.
Why is the Drake and Norris expedition of 1589 important to a balanced view of privateering?
How do historians disagree about whether Elizabeth had an imperial vision?
Which commodities were enumerated under the Navigation Act of 1660?
Give two events from the war of 1702 to 1713 in North America.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
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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