The American West, c1835-c1895: Development of Settlement, Ranching and the Cattle Industry - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

12 original exam-style questions - 4 pages of questions with a full mark scheme - free printable PDF.

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This topic is chapter 4 of GCSE History: The American West, c1835-c1895 Practice Book.

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The American West, c1835-c1895: Changes to the Plains Indians' Way of Life, c1862-1868
The American West, c1835-c1895: Conflicts and Conquest of the Later Period, 1876-1895

6.4 The American West, c1835-c1895: Development of Settlement, Ranching and the Cattle Industry

EDEXCEL 1HI0 · about 55 minutes

Total Marks

Name: _______________________________ Date: ____ / ____ / ______

Answer ALL questions. Write in full sentences for Questions 15, 16 and 17. You are advised to spend about 65 minutes on this pack.

State one reason why cattle ranching developed on the open range of the Plains in the years after the American Civil War.

(Total for Question 1 is 2 marks)

State one way in which the growth of ranching and barbed-wire fencing led to the decline of the open range in the later 1870s and 1880s.

(Total for Question 2 is 2 marks)

Explain two consequences of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.

(Total for Question 3 is 8 marks)

Write a narrative account analysing how settlement of the Plains developed between the passing of the Homestead Act (1862) and the completion of the transcontinental railroad (1869).

You may use the following information in your answer:
- the terms of the Homestead Act and who it attracted to the Plains
- the difficulties settlers faced adapting to the Plains environment in these years

You should also use information of your own.

(Total for Question 4 is 8 marks)

Explain two of the following:
(a) the importance of the Homestead Act (1862) for the settlement of the Plains
(b) the importance of barbed wire for farming and ranching on the Plains
(c) the importance of the Chisholm Trail for the growth of the cattle industry

You must answer on TWO parts.

(Total for Question 5 is 16 marks)

State one main term of the Homestead Act (1862).

(Total for Question 6 is 2 marks)

Name three new technologies that helped farmers settle and work land on the Plains from the 1860s and 1870s.

(Total for Question 7 is 3 marks)

Name the man usually credited with inventing and patenting a practical form of barbed wire in 1874.

(Total for Question 8 is 1 mark)

State one way in which barbed wire changed farming and ranching on the Plains.

(Total for Question 9 is 2 marks)

Give the year in which the first transcontinental railroad across the United States was completed.

(Total for Question 10 is 1 mark)

State one way in which the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 affected settlement of the Plains.

(Total for Question 11 is 2 marks)

Name the trail used from the late 1860s to drive Texas longhorn cattle north to railheads in Kansas.

(Total for Question 12 is 1 mark)

Mark scheme · 6.4 The American West, c1835-c1895: Development of Settlement, Ranching and the Cattle Industry

Question 1

B1 identifies a reason, e.g. millions of semi-wild Texas longhorn cattle were available, having bred largely unmanaged during the war
B1 supporting detail, e.g. cattle could be bought cheaply in Texas and sold at a large profit once driven north to railheads and shipped to growing eastern city markets
Answer: Large numbers of cheap Texas longhorn cattle could be driven north to railheads and sold at a big profit in eastern markets.

Question 2

B1 identifies a factor, e.g. increasing numbers of ranchers and farmers fenced land with barbed wire
B1 supporting detail, e.g. this reduced the amount of unfenced grazing land available and increasingly separated ranches from one another, ending the earlier system of unrestricted, shared open-range grazing
Answer: Growing use of barbed wire to fence land reduced the unfenced grazing available, ending the earlier open-range system.

Question 3

Level 1 (1-2): Identifies one or two general consequences of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, with little or no supporting detail or explanation.
Level 2 (3-4): Identifies and begins to explain one consequence, supported by accurate detail.
Level 3 (5-6): Explains two consequences of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, 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, showing how the consequences connect.
Indicative content:
- Faster, cheaper travel encouraged a much larger wave of settlers to move onto the Plains than the earlier overland trails had allowed, speeding up the pace at which land claimed under the Homestead Act was actually settled.
- The railroad let farmers and ranchers ship their produce and cattle to large eastern markets far more cheaply and quickly than driving cattle overland or hauling crops by wagon, making commercial farming and ranching on the Plains far more profitable.
- Railheads such as Abilene grew rapidly into busy cattle towns almost overnight, as they became the point where cattle driven north on trails such as the Chisholm Trail were loaded onto trains, shaping the pattern of the developing cattle industry.
- The railroad also made it easier and cheaper for the US government and army to move soldiers and supplies across the Plains, which had significant knock-on effects for US government policy and military campaigns against Plains Indian nations in the years that followed.

Question 4

Level 1 (1-2): Simple, generalised statements, with little organisation or sense of change over time.
Level 2 (3-4): Some accurate knowledge is deployed, with limited organisation into a sequence; the account may be more a list of events than a developed narrative.
Level 3 (5-6): The account is organised and mostly coherent, and shows some 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 Homestead Act of 1862 offered 160 acres of public land for a small fee on condition of five years' residence and improvement, attracting many families who could not otherwise have afforded to own farmland.
- In the years immediately after 1862, settlers arriving on the Plains faced serious practical difficulties: a shortage of timber for building and fencing, tough prairie turf that was hard to plough, and unreliable rainfall, so early settlement was often slow and hard.
- Through the mid-to-late 1860s, some technological solutions began to appear, such as sod houses built from turf blocks where timber was scarce, though widely available solutions such as effective barbed wire were not yet in use.
- By 1869 the completion of the transcontinental railroad transformed the pace of settlement, since it made the journey west and the transport of goods far quicker and cheaper, encouraging a much larger wave of settlers than the earlier Homestead Act alone had produced.
- Overall, the narrative moves from the Homestead Act creating the legal opportunity for settlement in 1862, through several years in which the harsh Plains environment limited how quickly that opportunity could be taken up, to the railroad's completion in 1869 removing a major practical barrier and accelerating settlement significantly.

Question 5

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 gave ordinary families a realistic, affordable route to owning Plains farmland, directly driving the wave of settlement that followed 1862 and shaping the pattern of small, family-run farms across much of the Plains.
- (b) Barbed wire was important because it solved the region's timber shortage for fencing, letting farmers protect crops and ranchers mark out grazing land cheaply, and its spread from 1874 was a key factor in ending the earlier open-range system by enclosing land that had previously been shared.
- (c) The Chisholm Trail was important because it was the main route by which millions of Texas longhorn cattle were driven north to railheads such as Abilene in the years after the Civil War, making large-scale commercial cattle ranching profitable and shaping the growth of Kansas cattle towns.
- A strong answer on any two parts explains a clear causal chain from the Act, technology or trail named to its stated importance, using precise dates and detail rather than general description.

Question 6

B1 identifies a term, e.g. a settler could claim 160 acres of public land
B1 supporting detail, e.g. for a small filing fee, on condition that they built a home and farmed the land for five years
Answer: A settler could claim 160 acres of public land for a small fee, on condition they lived on and farmed it for five years.

Question 7

B1 barbed wire
B1 the windmill (for pumping water)
B1 the steel plough (accept also the sod house or dry-farming methods)
Answer: E.g. barbed wire, the windmill and the steel plough.

Question 8

B1 Joseph Glidden
Answer: Joseph Glidden

Question 9

B1 identifies a change, e.g. it allowed farmers to fence land cheaply, since timber for fencing was scarce
B1 supporting detail, e.g. this let farmers protect crops from cattle and increasingly enclosed land that had previously been open range, reducing the land available for free-roaming herds
Answer: It allowed cheap fencing of land, protecting crops and enclosing land that had previously been open range.

Question 10

B1 1869
Answer: 1869

Question 11

B1 identifies an effect, e.g. it made travelling west and transporting goods far quicker and cheaper
B1 supporting detail, e.g. this encouraged many more settlers to move to the Plains and allowed farm produce and cattle to be shipped to markets in the East
Answer: It made westward travel and goods transport far quicker and cheaper, encouraging settlement and allowing produce and cattle to reach eastern markets.

Question 12

B1 the Chisholm Trail
Answer: The Chisholm Trail

The American West, c1835-c1895: Development of Settlement, Ranching and the Cattle Industry - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

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