Period Study: The Making of America, 1789–1900 — OCR GCSE History B Schools History Project

The Making of America, 1789-1900 is a period study that explores the dramatic transformation of the United States from a fragile new republic into a major industrial and territorial power. It covers key themes such as westward expansion, the conflict over slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, immigration, urbanisation and the impact of these changes on different groups including Native Americans, African Americans, women and immigrants. Students must understand both the chronological narrative and the causes and consequences of major events.

This topic is essential for understanding modern America and its enduring debates about race, federal power, citizenship and national identity. It also develops key historical skills such as analysing causation, change and continuity, and evaluating historical interpretations. In the OCR GCSE History B Schools History Project, this period study is assessed through source analysis, structured essays and a depth study, making it crucial for students aiming for high grades.

• →Manifest Destiny: The belief that American expansion across the continent was inevitable and divinely ordained, which drove westward migration and justified the displacement of Native Americans.
• →Sectionalism: The growing division between the North and South over slavery, states' rights and economic interests, which ultimately led to the Civil War.
• →Reconstruction: The period 1865-1877 when the federal government attempted to rebuild the South and integrate freed African Americans into society, resulting in constitutional amendments but also resistance and eventual retreat.
• →Industrialisation and Urbanisation: The rapid growth of industry and cities in the late nineteenth century, fuelled by immigration, which created economic opportunities but also social problems and inequality.
• →Federal vs State Power: The ongoing struggle over the balance of authority between the national government and individual states, central to debates over slavery, civil rights and economic policy.

• Identify specific methods of expansion, such as the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
• Explain the role of military conflict in removing Native Americans from their lands to facilitate white settlement.
• Discuss the economic motivations for expansion, including the demand for new farming land.
• Analyse the political desire to secure the nation's borders against European empires like Britain and Spain.
• Identify the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 as a catalyst for the profitability of short-staple cotton.
• Describe the geographical shift of plantations into the Deep South to cultivate new, fertile lands.
• Explain how the demand for plantation labour led to a massive increase in the enslaved population and the internal slave trade.
• Recognise the economic interdependence between the expansion of cotton agriculture and the entrenchment of the institution of slavery.
• Identify the 1830 Indian Removal Act as the legislation authorising the relocation of eastern tribes.
• Describe the Trail of Tears (1838) as the forced march of the Cherokee Nation resulting in thousands of deaths.
• Explain the different methods of resistance used by indigenous peoples, such as the Cherokee's legal challenges and the Seminole's armed conflict.
• Recognise Andrew Jackson's role in enforcing removal policies despite the Supreme Court ruling in Worcester v. Georgia.
• Explain the central role of the buffalo in the daily life and survival of Plains Native Americans.
• Describe the nomadic lifestyle of the Plains tribes, highlighting the importance of horses and tipis.
• Detail the social and political organisation of the Lakota Sioux, including the role of bands, chiefs, and councils.
• Outline the spiritual beliefs of the Lakota Sioux, such as the significance of the Great Spirit and sacred lands like the Black Hills.
• Describe the practice of counting coup as a method of demonstrating bravery in warfare without necessarily killing the enemy.
• Identify the push and pull factors for migration to Oregon and California, such as economic depression in the East and the promise of fertile land.
• Describe the hazards of the overland trails, including disease, starvation, and difficult geographical barriers.
• Explain the reasons for Mormon migration, specifically escaping religious persecution following the murder of Joseph Smith.
• Detail Brigham Young's role in successfully leading the Mormons to Utah and establishing a thriving settlement through irrigation and strict organisation.
• Describe the rapid influx of prospectors and the resulting lawlessness and vigilante justice in Californian mining camps.
• Explain the devastating impact of the Californian Gold Rush on Native American populations and the local environment.
• Identify the consequences of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, including the establishment of new towns and farming communities on the Plains.
• Analyse how the Pikes Peak Gold Rush increased tensions with Plains Indians by bringing white settlers into lands previously granted to them.
• Identify the role of westward expansion in exacerbating tensions over whether new states would permit slavery.
• Explain how the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 undermined previous compromises by introducing popular sovereignty.
• Describe the political impact of the formation of the Republican Party and its stance against the expansion of slavery.
• Outline how Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860 served as the immediate catalyst for the secession of Southern states.
• Describe the initial Union policy of treating escaped enslaved people as contraband of war before 1863.
• Explain the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation in changing the war's objectives and authorising the recruitment of African American soldiers.
• Identify the inequalities faced by African American soldiers in the Union Army, including unequal pay and segregated units.
• Outline the ways in which enslaved people in the Confederacy resisted and undermined the Southern war effort.
• Identify the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments as the constitutional foundation of Reconstruction.
• Explain how Black Codes restricted the economic and social freedoms of African Americans.
• Describe the sharecropping system as an economic limitation that kept many freedmen in debt.
• Recognise the role of the Ku Klux Klan in using terror to prevent African Americans from exercising their voting rights.
• Identify the role of the transcontinental railroads in accelerating white settlement and disrupting the Plains ecosystem.
• Explain how the cattle industry expanded through the establishment of ranches on the open range.
• Describe the function of cow towns, such as Abilene or Dodge City, as vital transport hubs for the beef trade.
• Recognise the devastating impact of these developments on Native American ways of life and the buffalo population.
• Identify the environmental challenges faced by homesteaders, such as extreme weather, lack of water, and grasshopper plagues.
• Describe the living conditions on the Plains, including the construction of sod houses due to the scarcity of timber.
• Explain the farming techniques developed to overcome arid conditions, such as dry farming and planting Turkey Red wheat.
• Recognise the impact of new technologies, such as wind pumps for water extraction and barbed wire for fencing crops.
• Identify the causes of Little Crow's War, focusing on the failure of the US government to provide promised annuities to the Dakota Sioux.
• Describe the events and outcome of Red Cloud's War, including the closure of the Bozeman Trail and the signing of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.
• Explain the origins of the Great Sioux War, specifically the discovery of gold in the Black Hills and the subsequent invasion by white prospectors.
• Recognise the significance of the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the ultimate defeat and confinement of the Sioux.
• Identify the role of the reservation system in ending the nomadic lifestyle of the Plains Indians.
• Explain how the US government used reservations to force assimilation through farming and education.
• Describe the economic and cultural impact of the destruction of the buffalo herds by white hunters.
• Recognise the connection between the loss of the buffalo and the Native Americans' forced dependence on government rations.
• Identify the economic impact of the sharecropping system on freed African Americans after the Civil War.
• Explain how Jim Crow laws socially segregated African Americans in public spaces and facilities.
• Describe the political changes brought by the Reconstruction Amendments and their subsequent subversion through voting restrictions.
• Recognise the contrast between the brief political gains of Reconstruction and the disenfranchisement that followed.
• Identify key industries that drove the growth of big business, such as railroads, steel, and oil.
• Explain the role of monopolies and trusts in consolidating corporate power during the late nineteenth century.
• Describe the conditions in rapidly growing cities, including the development of tenements and overcrowding.
• Analyse the push and pull factors that led to mass migration from Europe to the United States.
• Evaluate the relationship between mass migration and the availability of cheap labour for expanding industries.

• 💡Use specific dates and names of treaties or purchases when describing how the USA expanded.
• 💡Link the methods of expansion directly to the motivations, showing how the need for land drove government policy.
• 💡Ensure all evidence provided falls within the specified 1789 to 1838 period, avoiding references to the later Gold Rush or Civil War.
• 💡Memorise the date 1793 and the significance of the cotton gin in transforming the southern economy.
• 💡Be prepared to identify the states that formed the new Cotton Kingdom in the Deep South.
• 💡Understand the mechanics of the domestic slave trade and how it facilitated the movement of enslaved people to new plantations.
• 💡When answering questions on this topic, explicitly link the 1830 Indian Removal Act to the subsequent events up to 1838.
• 💡Use specific examples of tribal resistance, contrasting the Cherokee's legal approach with the Seminole's military resistance.
• 💡Remember to mention the destination of the removed tribes as the newly created Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.
• 💡Use the Lakota Sioux as your primary example when discussing Plains Native American culture, ensuring you mention specific cultural practices.
• 💡Clearly link the nomadic lifestyle to the reliance on the buffalo and the use of horses.
• 💡When discussing beliefs, mention specific sacred locations like the Black Hills to demonstrate detailed knowledge of the Lakota Sioux.
• 💡Use the Donner Party as a specific example of the extreme risks faced by early migrants crossing the mountains.
• 💡When discussing the Mormon settlement, emphasise the importance of Brigham Young and the disciplined approach to irrigation.
• 💡Compare the motivations of the Oregon pioneers seeking economic opportunity with those of the Mormons seeking religious freedom.
• 💡Highlight the contrast between the temporary nature of many mining camps and the permanent agricultural settlements that developed to supply them.
• 💡Use the Pikes Peak Gold Rush to explain the shift in United States government policy regarding Indian Territory on the Plains.
• 💡Mention the environmental damage caused by mining techniques introduced during the Californian Gold Rush.
• 💡When discussing causes, distinguish between long-term underlying tensions, such as economic differences, and short-term triggers, such as Lincoln's election.
• 💡Use specific legislative examples, such as the Compromise of 1850 or the Kansas-Nebraska Act, to illustrate political divisions.
• 💡Remember to link the issue of slavery directly to westward expansion, as the creation of new states was the primary battleground for these divisions.
• 💡Highlight the dual role of African Americans as both soldiers fighting for the Union and civilians resisting within the Confederacy.
• 💡Use the term contraband to describe how the Union initially classified escaped enslaved people before the Emancipation Proclamation.
• 💡Emphasise the shift in the Union's war aims from merely preserving the Union to actively abolishing slavery after 1863.
• 💡When evaluating Reconstruction, balance the constitutional achievements against the practical realities of life in the South.
• 💡Use specific terms like 'sharecropping' and 'Black Codes' to demonstrate precise historical knowledge.
• 💡Consider the motivations of Southern state governments in passing laws that circumvented federal amendments.
• 💡Link the growth of ranches and cow towns directly to the expansion of the railroad network to show cause and effect.
• 💡Use specific examples of cow towns, such as Abilene, to support your explanations of the cattle trade.
• 💡Always consider the consequences of white exploitation on the indigenous populations and the environment.
• 💡When discussing homesteader challenges, categorise them into living conditions (e.g. housing, fuel) and farming difficulties (e.g. water, pests).
• 💡Link specific technological innovations directly to the problems they solved, such as wind pumps solving the lack of surface water.
• 💡Use specific examples like Turkey Red wheat or sod houses to add precise historical detail to your answers.
• 💡Create a timeline of the three wars to clearly distinguish their specific causes, key events, and consequences.
• 💡When explaining the causes of conflict, emphasise the role of resource competition, such as land, gold, and hunting grounds.
• 💡Use the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty as a turning point to explain both the conclusion of Red Cloud's War and the origins of the Great Sioux War.
• 💡Link the destruction of the buffalo directly to the success of the reservation policy, as it removed the Native Americans' alternative means of survival.
• 💡Use specific examples of assimilation policies on reservations, such as the establishment of boarding schools or the banning of traditional religious practices.
• 💡Remember to frame these changes within the broader context of US westward expansion and the building of the railroads.
• 💡Clearly distinguish between the economic, social, and political impacts when answering questions about African American lives.
• 💡Use the term 'sharecropping' to demonstrate understanding of the specific economic hardships faced by freedmen in the post-war South.
• 💡Highlight the reversal of fortunes experienced by African Americans between the height of Reconstruction and the end of the nineteenth century.
• 💡Link the three elements of the statement together: explain how big business created jobs that pulled mass migration, which in turn caused cities to grow.
• 💡Use specific examples of big business, such as the expansion of the railroad network or the rise of the Standard Oil Company.
• 💡When discussing cities, mention specific urban centres like Chicago or New York to ground your historical analysis in concrete geography.
• 💡Always use specific dates, names and legislation to support your points. For example, refer to the Homestead Act (1862), the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) or the Dawes Act (1887) rather than making vague statements.
• 💡When answering source questions, consider the provenance (author, date, purpose) and compare sources explicitly. Explain how and why they differ, not just what they say.
• 💡For essay questions, structure your answer with a clear introduction, paragraphs that each make a point and support it with evidence, and a conclusion that weighs the factors and reaches a justified judgement.

• Confusing the Louisiana Purchase with later acquisitions like the Mexican Cession. Ensure examples of expansion fall strictly within the 1789 to 1838 timeframe, focusing on the Louisiana Purchase and Florida.
• Describing expansion as a peaceful process. Acknowledge the violent military conflicts and forced removals of Native American tribes that enabled territorial growth.
• Ignoring the 'why' part of the question. Always balance the narrative of how land was acquired with the underlying economic and political reasons driving the expansion.
• Assuming the transatlantic slave trade supplied the labour for this expansion. Note that the US banned the international slave trade in 1808; the expansion relied on the domestic slave trade from the Upper South.
• Believing cotton was always the dominant crop across the entire South before 1793. Understand that tobacco and rice were previously dominant, and the cotton gin made widespread cotton cultivation viable.
• Treating the expansion of plantations and slavery as separate events. Explain that the growth of cotton plantations and the expansion of slavery were inextricably linked and mutually reinforcing.
• Mistake: Believing all indigenous people left the east voluntarily. Correction: Understand that while some signed treaties, many were forced to relocate under military threat, such as the Cherokee in 1838.
• Mistake: Confusing the Trail of Tears with later Plains Indian conflicts. Correction: Ensure the Trail of Tears is specifically linked to the 1838 forced removal of the Cherokee from the southeast to Indian Territory.
• Mistake: Assuming the Supreme Court supported the removal of the Cherokee. Correction: Recognise that the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Cherokee in 1832, but President Jackson refused to enforce the decision.
• Mistake: Assuming Plains Native Americans had a single king or ruler. Correction: Understand that tribes like the Lakota Sioux were organised into bands, with decisions made by consensus in councils.
• Mistake: Believing Plains warfare was primarily about conquering land and destroying enemies. Correction: Recognise that traditional warfare often focused on individual bravery, such as counting coup, and stealing horses.
• Mistake: Treating all Native American tribes as having identical cultures. Correction: Focus specifically on the nomadic, buffalo-hunting culture of the Plains tribes, using the Lakota Sioux as the specific case study required.
• Error: Confusing the destinations of different migrant groups. Correction: Remember that early pioneers primarily sought farmland in Oregon and California, while Mormons specifically sought isolation in Utah.
• Error: Assuming Native American attacks were the main cause of death on the trails. Correction: Disease, particularly cholera, and accidents were far more deadly than conflicts with Native Americans.
• Error: Believing the Mormons found a fertile paradise in Utah. Correction: The Great Salt Lake Valley was arid and required extensive, highly organised irrigation to support agriculture.
• Error: Treating the Californian and Pikes Peak Gold Rushes as identical events. Correction: Distinguish between them; California led to rapid statehood and coastal development, while Pikes Peak spurred settlement on the central Plains.
• Error: Assuming all miners became wealthy. Correction: Acknowledge that very few individual prospectors struck it rich, with merchants often making the most money.
• Error: Ignoring the impact on Native Americans. Correction: Always include the severe consequences for indigenous peoples, such as displacement, disease, and violence, in both gold rushes.
• Mistake: Believing Lincoln campaigned on the immediate abolition of slavery in the South. Correction: Lincoln's 1860 platform focused on preventing the expansion of slavery into new western territories, not abolishing it where it already existed.
• Mistake: Assuming the North and South were only divided over moral views on slavery. Correction: The divisions were also deeply economic and political, focusing on states' rights and the balance of power in Congress.
• Mistake: Thinking the Civil War started immediately after the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Correction: The Act caused localized violence, but full-scale war did not begin until after Lincoln's election and the subsequent secession of Southern states.
• Mistake: Assuming the Emancipation Proclamation immediately freed all enslaved people in America. Correction: It only applied to states in active rebellion against the Union, leaving slavery intact in loyal border states until the 13th Amendment.
• Mistake: Believing African American soldiers were treated equally in the Union Army. Correction: They served in segregated regiments, initially received lower pay than white soldiers, and faced severe risks if captured.
• Mistake: Thinking enslaved people in the South were passive during the war. Correction: Many actively resisted by escaping to Union lines, providing intelligence, or disrupting plantation labour.
• Mistake: Believing that the abolition of slavery immediately resulted in full equality. Correction: Understand that while slavery ended, Black Codes and sharecropping created new forms of economic and social control.
• Mistake: Confusing the 14th and 15th Amendments. Correction: Remember that the 14th Amendment granted citizenship and equal protection, whereas the 15th Amendment specifically protected voting rights for men.
• Mistake: Assuming Reconstruction was entirely successful. Correction: Recognise that Reconstruction ultimately failed to secure long-term civil rights, leading to the Jim Crow era.
• Mistake: Viewing cow towns merely as lawless settlements. Correction: Understand that cow towns were primarily economic hubs created specifically to connect cattle trails with the railroad network.
• Mistake: Assuming the railroads only transported people. Correction: Recognise that railroads were crucial for transporting raw materials, cattle, and manufactured goods, driving the Plains economy.
• Mistake: Ignoring the environmental impact of ranching and railroads. Correction: Note that these developments led to overgrazing and the deliberate slaughter of buffalo, destroying the Plains ecosystem.
• Error: Believing that the Plains were easy to farm immediately after the Homestead Act. Correction: Understand that the Plains presented severe environmental challenges that required new technologies and farming methods to overcome.
• Error: Confusing the living conditions of homesteaders with those of earlier eastern settlers. Correction: Remember that homesteaders on the Plains often lived in sod houses and used buffalo dung for fuel due to the lack of trees.
• Error: Assuming barbed wire was used to keep cattle in. Correction: Recognise that homesteaders used barbed wire primarily to keep roaming cattle drives and open-range herds out of their crops.
• Error: Confusing the causes of the three different wars. Correction: Ensure you link Little Crow's War to starving reservation Indians, Red Cloud's War to the Bozeman Trail, and the Great Sioux War to Black Hills gold.
• Error: Assuming the Native Americans lost every battle during the Indian Wars. Correction: Note that Red Cloud successfully forced the US to abandon forts in 1868, and the Sioux won a major tactical victory at the Little Bighorn in 1876.
• Error: Believing the US government consistently upheld its treaty obligations. Correction: Understand that the violation of treaties, such as the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty after gold was discovered, was a primary cause of conflict.
• Mistake: Believing the buffalo died out naturally due to disease or climate change. Correction: The buffalo were deliberately hunted to near-extinction by white hunters for profit and to undermine the Native American way of life.
• Mistake: Assuming reservations were large, fertile areas given as fair compensation. Correction: Reservations were often located on poor, infertile land that made traditional hunting impossible and farming extremely difficult.
• Mistake: Thinking Native Americans willingly adopted reservation life. Correction: Most were forced onto reservations through military campaigns, starvation, and broken treaties.
• Mistake: Assuming the abolition of slavery immediately led to economic equality for African Americans. Correction: Most freedmen were forced into sharecropping, which created a new system of economic exploitation and debt.
• Mistake: Believing that African Americans never held political office during this period. Correction: During Reconstruction, many African Americans were elected to local, state, and federal offices before being disenfranchised.
• Mistake: Confusing the timeline of segregation, thinking Jim Crow laws existed before the Civil War. Correction: Jim Crow laws were introduced after Reconstruction to replace the social control previously provided by slavery.
• Confusing early nineteenth-century westward expansion with late nineteenth-century mass migration. Focus on the influx of European immigrants to eastern and midwestern cities in the late 1800s, rather than pioneers moving west.
• Assuming big business growth benefited all Americans equally. Recognise that while industrialists amassed great wealth, many factory workers and immigrants faced low wages and poor living conditions.
• Treating mass migration as a purely internal movement. Ensure you distinguish between internal migration, such as rural to urban, and the mass international immigration from Europe that characterised this period.
• Students often think the Civil War was only about slavery; in fact, it was also about states' rights, economic differences and political power, though slavery was the central cause.
• Many believe that the Reconstruction Amendments immediately gave African Americans full equality; in reality, they faced decades of discrimination, violence and legal segregation after 1877.
• Students sometimes assume that all immigrants were welcomed; in fact, there was significant nativist opposition, leading to laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and restrictions on Southern and Eastern European immigration.

1. 1Week 1: Create a timeline of key events from 1789 to 1900, including the Louisiana Purchase, Missouri Compromise, Mexican-American War, Civil War, Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. Use colour coding for political, social and economic themes.
2. 2Week 1: Study each major theme (westward expansion, slavery and abolition, Civil War, Reconstruction, immigration and industrialisation) using a revision guide and make flashcards for key terms, dates and individuals.
3. 3Week 2: Practise source analysis questions from past papers, focusing on identifying provenance and comparing interpretations. Use the OCR mark schemes to self-assess.
4. 4Week 2: Write at least two full essay plans and one timed essay (e.g. 'Explain the causes of the Civil War' or 'Assess the impact of immigration on American society'). Get feedback from your teacher.
5. 5Ongoing: Use active recall by testing yourself on key facts and practising explaining concepts aloud without notes. Review your flashcards regularly.

• 📋Source analysis (e.g. 'How useful are Sources A and B for an enquiry into...?'): Focus on content, provenance and context. Explain what the sources tell us and their limitations.
• 📋Explain question (e.g. 'Explain why...'): Provide 2-3 developed reasons with specific evidence. Aim for cause and consequence.
• 📋Essay question (e.g. 'How far...' or 'Assess the significance of...'): Write a balanced argument with a clear judgement. Use paragraphs with point, evidence, explanation and link back to the question.
• 📋Interpretations question (e.g. 'How far do you agree with Interpretation 1?'): Analyse the viewpoint, use your own knowledge to support or challenge it, and reach a substantiated conclusion.