Identifying and Explaining Turning Points in the American West - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

15 original exam-style questions - 5 pages of questions with a full mark scheme - free printable PDF.

Download PDF Jump to mark scheme (page 6)Identifying and Explaining Turning Points in the American West revision guide

This topic is chapter 12 of GCSE History: The American West, c1835-c1895 Practice Book.

6.12 Identifying and Explaining Turning Points in the American West

EDEXCEL 1HI0 · about 60 minutes

Total Marks

Name: _______________________________ Date: ____ / ____ / ______

Answer ALL questions. Write in full sentences for Questions 13, 14 and 15. You are advised to spend about 65 minutes on this pack.

Give the year the Homestead Act was passed by the US Congress.

(Total for Question 1 is 1 mark)

Give the year of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

(Total for Question 2 is 1 mark)

Name one mineral rush that increased white settlement in the West during the nineteenth century.

(Total for Question 3 is 1 mark)

Name the two railway companies whose meeting in 1869 completed the first US transcontinental railroad.

(Total for Question 4 is 1 mark)

Give one way the completion of the transcontinental railroad affected migration to the Plains.

(Total for Question 5 is 1 mark)

State two effects of horses becoming widespread among Plains nations from the eighteenth century.

(Total for Question 6 is 2 marks)

Name the 1887 law that aimed to break up tribal landholding by granting allotments to individual Native American households.

(Total for Question 7 is 1 mark)

State one reason settlers were attracted to homesteads under the Homestead Act.

(Total for Question 8 is 2 marks)

Name the final military confrontation between US troops and Sioux that resulted in many Native Americans being killed in 1890.

(Total for Question 9 is 1 mark)

State two problems faced by small family farmers on the Plains in the 1870s and 1880s.

(Total for Question 10 is 2 marks)

State one effect of the Dawes Act of 1887 on Native American communal landholding.

(Total for Question 11 is 2 marks)

Give two immediate consequences for Native Americans of the Lakota-led coalition's victory over the US army at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

(Total for Question 12 is 4 marks)

Explain two consequences of the Homestead Act of 1862 for the settlement of the Plains and for Native American tribes.

(Total for Question 13 is 8 marks)

Write a narrative account analysing how the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 changed economic and social patterns on the Great Plains between 1869 and the 1880s.

You may use the following information in your answer:
- the arrival of regular rail connections linking eastern markets to the Plains
- the growth of towns and commercial agriculture on the Plains

You should also use information of your own.

(Total for Question 14 is 8 marks)

Explain two of the following:
(a) the importance of the 1862 Homestead Act for the expansion of white farming on the Plains
(b) the importance of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 for US government policy towards Plains nations
(c) the importance of the Dawes Act of 1887 for the long term ownership of land by Native American tribes

You must answer on TWO parts.

(Total for Question 15 is 16 marks)

Mark scheme · 6.12 Identifying and Explaining Turning Points in the American West

Question 1

B1 1862
Answer: 1862

Question 2

B1 1876
Answer: 1876

Question 3

B1 The California Gold Rush (1849) or the Comstock Lode (Nevada) or the Colorado Silver discoveries
Answer: For example, the California Gold Rush of 1849.

Question 4

B1 The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific
Answer: The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific

Question 5

B1 it made travel to the Plains faster and cheaper, encouraging more settlers to move West
Answer: It made travel to the Plains faster and cheaper, encouraging more settlers to move west.

Question 6

B1 identifies an effect, e.g. hunting became faster and more efficient
B1 supporting detail, e.g. mounted warfare and raiding increased mobility and changed intertribal competition
Answer: Hunting became faster and more efficient on horseback, and mounted warfare and raiding increased intertribal mobility and competition.

Question 7

B1 The Dawes Act
Answer: The Dawes Act

Question 8

B1 identifies a reason, e.g. free or very cheap land
B1 supporting detail, e.g. a settler could claim 160 acres after improving and living on it for five years
Answer: Because of access to free or very cheap land, for example a settler could claim 160 acres after living on and improving it for five years.

Question 9

B1 The Wounded Knee Massacre
Answer: The Wounded Knee Massacre

Question 10

B1 identifies a problem, e.g. unpredictable weather and drought
B1 identifies a second problem, e.g. long transport costs or debt from buying equipment and paying high freight charges
Answer: Unpredictable weather and drought, and heavy transport costs plus debt from buying equipment and paying freight.

Question 11

B1 identifies an effect, e.g. it reduced tribal land by dividing it into individual allotments
B1 supporting detail, e.g. 'surplus' land not allotted was sold to white settlers, further dispossessing tribes
Answer: It broke up tribal land into individual allotments, and leftover land was sold to white settlers, reducing the land controlled collectively by tribes.

Question 12

B1 loss of leaders or warriors in subsequent campaigns, where applicable
B1 increased US military determination leading to larger campaigns against Plains nations
B1 further pressure on remaining bands to move onto reservations
B1 a short-term morale boost for Native resistance followed by harsher reprisals and suppression
Answer: It led to increased US military determination and larger campaigns against Plains nations, greater pressure on remaining bands to move onto reservations, loss of warriors or leaders in later actions, and a short-lived morale boost followed by harsher suppression.

Question 13

Level 1 (1-2): Identifies one or two simple consequences of the Homestead Act, with little or no supporting detail or explanation.
Level 2 (3-4): Identifies and begins to explain one consequence, supported by some accurate detail.
Level 3 (5-6): Explains two consequences of the Homestead Act, each supported by accurate and relevant detail.
Level 4 (7-8): Explains two consequences in a well-developed, logically structured way, supported throughout by precise and accurate detail, and shows links between the consequences.
Indicative content:
- Encouraged mass migration by offering small plots of land, increasing the number of small family farms on the Plains and accelerating white settlement into formerly tribal lands.
- As settlement increased, Native American tribes faced loss of hunting grounds and grazing areas, leading to more conflicts and making it harder for tribes to sustain buffalo-based economies.
- The Act stimulated the establishment of towns, markets and rail connections, making Plains farming more commercially viable but also tying settlers into national markets and freight costs.
- Many homesteaders failed due to difficult environment and costs, producing cycles of debt and farm abandonment, but overall the policy shifted control of land from communal or federal reservation management into individual private ownership aligned with US expansion.

Question 14

Level 1 (1-2): Simple, generalised statements with little organisation or sense of change over time.
Level 2 (3-4): Some accurate knowledge is used, with limited organisation into a sequence; the account may list events rather than develop a narrative.
Level 3 (5-6): The account is organised and mostly coherent, and shows analysis of how the situation changed, with accurate supporting detail.
Level 4 (7-8): The answer demonstrates a coherent, well-organised narrative that analyses connections between events across the period, showing clearly how the situation changed, fully supported by precise and accurate detail.
Indicative content:
- The railroad made movement of people and goods much faster and cheaper, increasing immigration of settlers and labourers to the Plains and encouraging commercial farming aimed at eastern markets.
- Rail links enabled grain and livestock to be sold nationally, which promoted larger-scale agriculture, the development of grain elevators and stockyards at railheads, and the growth of market towns along rail lines.
- The presence of railheads invited investment, land sales and business services, producing rapid town growth and changing social patterns as small, dispersed frontier communities gave way to more permanent settlements.
- Railway expansion also increased pressure on Native lands, as military and settler movement became easier, contributing to conflicts and the deeper incorporation of the Plains into the US economy and political control.

Question 15

Level 1 (1-4): For each part answered: identifies a general point of importance, with little or no supporting detail or explanation.
Level 2 (5-8): For each part answered: begins to explain importance, supported by some accurate detail.
Level 3 (9-12): For each part answered: explains importance clearly, supported by accurate and relevant detail, with some analysis of consequences.
Level 4 (13-16): For each part answered: explains importance in a well-developed, analytical way, fully supported by precise and accurate detail, showing clearly why the event or development mattered for the outcome named.
Indicative content:
- (a) The Homestead Act was important because it provided legal means for many families to claim land, accelerating white settlement and transforming land use from communal or hunted territory into small-scale private farms, which altered the social composition and political control of the Plains.
- (b) Little Bighorn was important because the defeat of Custer shocked US public opinion and strengthened political support for larger military campaigns and stricter policies, leading to increased troop deployment and ultimate confinement of many Plains nations to reservations.
- (c) The Dawes Act was important because by breaking up communal holdings into individual allotments it undermined tribal authority and communal land ownership, causing long-term loss of Native land through sales and making assimilation into American-style private property the dominant legal form of land tenure.

Identifying and Explaining Turning Points in the American West - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

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6.12 Identifying and Explaining Turning Points in the American West

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