AQA AS-Level History 7042
1A The Age of the Crusades, c1071–1204
1B Spain in the Age of Discovery, 1469–1598
1C The Tudors: England, 1485–1603
1D Stuart Britain and the Crisis of Monarchy, 1603–1702
1E Russia in the Age of Absolutism and Enlightenment, 1682–1796
1F Industrialisation and the People: Britain, c1783–1885
1G Challenge and Transformation: Britain, c1851–1964
1H Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964
1J The British Empire, c1857–1967
1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975
1L The Quest for Political Stability: Germany, 1871–1991
2A Royal Authority and the Angevin Kings, 1154–1216
2B The Wars of the Roses, 1450–1499
2C The Reformation in Europe, c1500–1564
2D Religious Conflict and the Church in England, c1529–c1570
2E The English Revolution, 1625–1660
2F The Sun King: Louis XIV, France and Europe, 1643–1715
2G The Birth of the USA, 1760–1801
2H France in Revolution, 1774–1815
2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877
2K International Relations and Global Conflict, c1890–1941
2L Italy and Fascism, c1900–1945
2M Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition, 1906–1957
2N Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia, 1917–1953
2O Democracy and Nazism: Germany, 1918–1945
2P The Transformation of China, 1936–1997
2Q The American Dream: Reality and Illusion, 1945–1980
2R The Cold War, c1945–1991
2S The Making of Modern Britain, 1951–2007
2T The Crisis of Communism: The USSR and the Soviet Empire, 1953–2000
1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975
- 12 subtopics
- 70 things to know
- Component 1
What 1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 covers
Option 1K is a breadth study of the United States, taken as one of the Component 1 choices. It runs from Reconstruction and the Gilded Age through progressivism and depression to the superpower of the post-war decades.
Where it is assessed
Component 1
A breadth study, of which a student sits one.
Check the AQA specification ↗The 12 subtopics
Each one has its own page. AQA AS History students sit this topic in the first year.
- Johnson, Grant and Radical ReconstructionRecall questions on Andrew Johnson's leniency, vetoes and impeachment, the Crédit Mobilier and Whiskey Ring scandals under Grant, military rule, the Freedmen's Bureau and the 13th to 15th Amendments, and the Compromise of 1877.Open →
- The Redeemers and the Gilded Age PresidentsRecall questions on Klan and Redeemer violence, the origin of the term Gilded Age and the weakness of the presidents of these years.Open →
- The Post-Reconstruction South and Jim CrowRecall questions on the Gilded Age North and West, Redeemer governments, sharecropping and crop liens, Jim Crow laws, the rights promised by the 14th and 15th Amendments, and the poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses that evaded them.Open →
- The Railroad Boom and Big Business in the Gilded AgeRecall questions on the transcontinental railroad, land grants and railroad magnates, Standard Oil and horizontal integration, farming the Great Plains and the Homestead Act, urban growth, trusts and holding companies, and the effects of laissez-faire.Open →
- The Closing of the Frontier and Gilded Age Foreign PolicyRecall questions on the Census of 1890 and Turner's frontier thesis, the Monroe Doctrine and isolationism, the purchase of Alaska, and fishing, border and Fenian disputes with Canada.Open →
- The Populist Movement and the People's PartyRecall questions on who the Populists spoke for and on their demands over silver, taxation and the ownership of railroads and telegraphs.Open →
- Progressivism and Roosevelt's Square DealRecall questions on what Progressivism sought, the aims of the Square Deal, the trust Roosevelt broke in 1904 and the Hepburn Act.Open →
- Wilson's New Freedom and America's Economic RiseRecall questions on Wilson's New Freedom and how it differed from New Nationalism, the Underwood Tariff, Federal Reserve, Clayton Act and Federal Trade Commission, and the resources, markets, tariffs, immigration and corporations behind America's industrial rise.Open →
- Immigration, Urban Growth and SegregationRecall questions on the New Immigration and nativism, urban health, crime and machine politics, Jim Crow and Plessy v. Ferguson, the disfranchisement of African-Americans, lynching, and the rival strategies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.Open →
- American Imperialism and the War of 1898Recall questions on the economic, strategic, Social Darwinist and missionary motives for expansion, the Spanish-American War and its territorial gains, the Philippine-American War, the Panama Canal, and Big Stick, Dollar and Moral Diplomacy.Open →
- Neutrality and Entry into the First World WarRecall questions on American neutrality in 1914 and what strained it, the Lusitania and the Zimmermann Telegram, entry into the war in April 1917 and Wilson's framing of it, and the war's military and financial impact.Open →
- American Society and Industrial Power by 1920Recall questions on the United States' share of world output and on the ethnic, racial and cultural divisions of American society.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
What happened to Andrew Johnson in 1868 as a result of his conflicts with Congress?
How did the Ku Klux Klan and Redeemer violence undermine African-American gains during Reconstruction?
Why is the period from the 1870s to 1890s called the 'Gilded Age'?
What factors limited James Garfield's effectiveness as president?
What rights did the 14th Amendment grant to African-Americans?
When was the transcontinental railroad completed and what did it connect?
When and where was oil first discovered in the United States, launching the petroleum industry?
Why did industrial employment drive urbanisation during the Gilded Age?
What did the Census of 1890 declare about the American frontier?
What debates did the closing of the frontier prompt about America's future?
How did the Monroe Doctrine guide American foreign policy during the Gilded Age?
What social and economic groups did the Populist movement of the 1890s primarily represent, and against whom did they direct their grievances?
What taxation reform did the Populists demand?
Who was the joint Democratic and Populist presidential candidate in 1896, and what was his famous speech?
Which major trust did Roosevelt break up in 1904 using the Sherman Antitrust Act?
What political party emerged from the split between Taft and Roosevelt in 1912?
What did Wilson's 'New Freedom' advocate regarding the banking system?
What did the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 create?
In what ways had the USA surpassed Britain as an industrial power by 1900?
Approximately how many immigrants arrived in the USA between 1890 and 1920, and from which regions did they predominantly come?
What public health issues arose from rapid urban growth?
What system of laws enforced racial segregation across the South during this period?
How did W.E.B. Du Bois's approach differ from Booker T. Washington's?
What factors led to the Spanish-American War of 1898?
What did Roosevelt's 'Big Stick' diplomacy and the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine assert?
What was the immediate cause of American entry into the First World War in April 1917?
What ethnic tensions existed in American society by 1920?
What cultural divide characterised American society by 1920?
What major international agreement did the Senate reject, demonstrating political reaction against internationalism?
What slogan captured Warren G. Harding's approach to governance after World War I?
What was the Republican approach to taxation for wealthy Americans during the 1920s?
What term describes the Republican economic philosophy of minimal government interference in business during the 1920s?
What was the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and when was it established?
What was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)?
What landmark social welfare legislation was passed as part of the Second New Deal?
What role did consumer credit play in driving the 1920s economic boom?
How did agricultural overproduction weaken the 1920s economy?
What was margin buying and why did it create economic instability?
What happened to unemployment during American involvement in World War II?
When did American women gain the right to vote and through what measure?
How did mass unemployment affect American society during the Depression?
What characterised the industrialised North as a distinct American region?
What characterised the developing West as a distinct region?
How did discrimination against African-Americans in the North differ from the South?
What role did internal corruption play in the Klan's decline?
How did protective tariffs reflect isolationist sentiment in the 1920s?
What did the Neutrality Acts of 1935-1937 prohibit?
Which president served from 1945 to 1953 and oversaw immediate post-war reconstruction?
What change to welfare provision did the Fair Deal seek regarding social security?
Which 1947 act restricted trade union power by banning closed shops?
How did Kennedy's New Frontier aim to address economic hardship?
What was the most ambitious expansion of federal government since the New Deal?
What was the Job Corps programme designed to do?
What characterised the post-war economic boom from 1945 to the early 1970s?
What was Levittown an example of?
What education benefits did the GI Bill of 1944 provide to veterans?
What did the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigate?
Who emerged as the leading figure of the civil rights movement, advocating non-violent direct action?
What did the urban riots of the 1960s reflect?
Define the Cold War.
What was the purpose of the Marshall Plan from 1948?
How did US involvement in Vietnam escalate from Eisenhower to Johnson?
How did racial tensions demonstrate limits to social cohesion by 1975?
What did Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibit?
Define affirmative action.
How did the Second World War change the American economy?
What did Kennedy's New Frontier propose?
What was the anti-communist campaign of the late 1940s, and why did McCarthy fall?
Why did the Klan decline, and what did rejecting the League reveal?
Take 1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Reconstruction vs Redemption
Reconstruction: post-war programme for restoring the Union and redefining freedom. Redemption: southern conservative recovery of state political control.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What approach did Andrew Johnson take toward the former Confederate states during Reconstruction, and why did this weaken his presidency?
Model answer
Johnson pursued a lenient Reconstruction policy that allowed Southern states to quickly rejoin the Union with minimal requirements, which alienated Radical Republicans who wanted stricter conditions and protection for freedpeople.
- 2
Which two significant pieces of legislation did Andrew Johnson veto, contributing to his conflict with Congress?
Model answer
Johnson vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Bill, both of which Congress subsequently passed over his vetoes.
- 3
What happened to Andrew Johnson in 1868 as a result of his conflicts with Congress?
Model answer
Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1868, though he was acquitted by the Senate by a single vote.
- 4
What was the Crédit Mobilier scandal that damaged Grant's administration?
Model answer
The Crédit Mobilier scandal involved a construction company that overcharged the Union Pacific Railroad for building the transcontinental railroad, with profits distributed to congressmen and government officials to avoid investigation.
- 5
Describe the Whiskey Ring scandal during Grant's presidency.
Model answer
The Whiskey Ring was a conspiracy involving government officials and distillers who bribed Treasury Department agents to avoid paying taxes on whiskey, defrauding the federal government of millions of dollars.
- 6
How was the South organised under Radical Reconstruction's military provisions?
Model answer
The South was divided into five military districts, each governed by a Union general who oversaw the registration of voters and the establishment of new state governments.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 revision questions
- Is 1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 examined at AS in AQA History?
- Yes. It sits in Component 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.
- What does 1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 cover in AQA AS-Level History?
- 12 subtopics: johnson, grant and radical reconstruction, the redeemers and the gilded age presidents, the post-reconstruction south and jim crow, the railroad boom and big business in the gilded age, the closing of the frontier and gilded age foreign policy, the populist movement and the people's party, progressivism and roosevelt's square deal, wilson's new freedom and america's economic rise, immigration, urban growth and segregation, american imperialism and the war of 1898, neutrality and entry into the first world war and american society and industrial power by 1920. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is 1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 organised?
- By the AQA 7042 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in 1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975, 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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