America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877

This topic explores the deep divisions that tore the United States apart in the mid-19th century, culminating in the Civil War (1861–1865) and the turbulent Reconstruction era that followed. You will examine the political, economic, and social tensions between the industrialising North and the agrarian, slave-dependent South, focusing on key events such as the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), and the Dred Scott decision (1857). The course also covers the war itself, including military strategies, key battles like Gettysburg and Antietam, and the Emancipation Proclamation, before analysing Reconstruction policies, the rise of Jim Crow, and the failure to secure lasting racial equality.

Understanding this period is crucial because it shaped modern America's identity, federal-state relations, and ongoing struggles over race and civil rights. The topic also illustrates how political compromise can delay but not prevent conflict, and how war can both unite and fracture a nation. For AQA A-Level, you will need to evaluate interpretations of causation (e.g., was the war inevitable?), the role of individuals like Lincoln and Davis, and the extent of change during Reconstruction.

This topic fits within the broader AQA A-Level 'America: A Nation Divided' module, which also covers the colonial period and the early republic. It connects to themes of nationalism, sectionalism, and the expansion of federal power, and provides essential context for later topics on the Gilded Age and the Civil Rights Movement.