America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation

What America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation covers

America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation is examined in Paper 1, Understanding the modern world. It covers the geography of North America, why the early settlers went west and the challenges they faced, dealing with a different culture, Increasing conflict on the Plains, the background to the American Civil War, coming to terms with the Mormons, the aftermath of the American Civil War, the continued settlement of the west and the resolution of ‘the Indian problem’ after 1865.

The 9 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The geography of North AmericaThe Great American Desert and Stephen Long's report, the mountain barriers, what Manifest Destiny claimed and how it shaped the war with Mexico and attitudes to the Plains Indians, and the Plains' natural advantages.Open →
• Why the early settlers went west and the challenges they facedBrigham Young and the Mormon trek from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake valley and its irrigation, why pioneer farmers set out for Oregon and California, the dangers of the overland trail and the fate of the Donner Party, and the California Gold Rush and its lawless mining camps.Open →
• Dealing with a different cultureThe Plains Indians' way of life, from the buffalo, the tipi and band government to their beliefs about land, counting coup and the Sun Dance, then the Indian Removal Act, the Permanent Indian Frontier and its collapse, and how the Gold Rush turned tolerance into conflict.Open →
• Increasing conflict on the PlainsThe Fort Laramie treaty of 1851 and why it broke down, the policy of concentration, Little Crow's War, Sand Creek, the Bozeman Trail and Fetterman's Trap, and the second Fort Laramie treaty of 1868.Open →
• The background to the American Civil WarHow North and South differed, the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas–Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, the abolitionists and Uncle Tom's Cabin, John Brown, Lincoln's election and secession, what Lincoln and Jefferson Davis did as war leaders, and what it did to civilians on both sides.Open →
• Coming to terms with the MormonsThe Mountain Meadows Massacre and who carried it out, the Utah War, the delayed execution of John D. Lee, the fight over plural marriage, and Utah's admission as a state.Open →
• The aftermath of the American Civil WarThe Thirteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Freedmen's Bureau, the Black Codes, reconstruction and the carpetbaggers, sharecropping, the Ku Klux Klan, the shift of power from the states to Washington, and how reconstruction ended in 1877.Open →
• The continued settlement of the westThe Homestead and Timber Culture Acts, why 160 acres was too small, the land grants and the transcontinental railroad, and how the Homesteaders coped with the weather and the shortage of timber and water.Open →
• The resolution of ‘the Indian problem’ after 1865The small reservations policy and the rival aims of extermination and assimilation, the slaughter of the buffalo, gold in the Black Hills and the Little Big Horn, the Dawes Act and why it left the tribes poorer, the Ghost Dance, Wounded Knee and the closing of the frontier in 1890.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 vs Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868

  Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851: agreement giving each tribe a defined territory in return for annual payments and protection. Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868: agreement in which the army left the Bozeman Trail and promised the Sioux the Black Hills.

• Homestead Act vs Timber Culture Act

  Homestead Act: offer of 160 acres of public land for a small fee and five years of farming. Timber Culture Act: grant of a further 160 acres in return for planting trees on part of the claim.

• Dawes Act vs Indian Removal Act

  Dawes Act: law of 1887 splitting reservations into family allotments and selling the land left over. Indian Removal Act: law of 1830 forcing tribes east of the Mississippi to move west of the river.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Which name did Americans in the early nineteenth century give to the grasslands lying between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains?

   Model answer

   The Great American Desert.

2. 2

   Whose expedition report of 1820 helped fix the idea that the centre of the continent was a wasteland?

   Model answer

   Stephen Long, who reported that the region was unfit for people who depended on farming.

3. 3

   Why did easterners believe the Plains could not be farmed?

   Model answer

   They were treeless, dry and swept by extreme heat, cold and wind, so settlers thought there was too little wood and water to live on.

4. 4

   Which two mountain barriers had migrants to the Pacific coast to cross?

   Model answer

   The Rocky Mountains and then the Sierra Nevada.

5. 5

   What effect did the desert idea have on where the earliest migrants tried to settle?

   Model answer

   They hurried across the grasslands without stopping and aimed instead for Oregon, California and Utah.

6. 6

   What did the idea of ‘Manifest Destiny’ claim?

   Model answer

   That God had chosen white Americans to settle and civilise the whole continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation revision questions

What does America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation cover in AQA GCSE History?

9 subtopics: the geography of north america, why the early settlers went west and the challenges they faced, dealing with a different culture, increasing conflict on the plains, the background to the american civil war, coming to terms with the mormons, the aftermath of the american civil war, the continued settlement of the west and the resolution of ‘the indian problem’ after 1865. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation organised?

By the AQA 8145 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.