GCSE History: The American West

Overview

• Focuses on the American West module of the GCSE history syllabus.
• Covers a 55-year period from 1840 to 1895.
• Concentrates on the Great Plains of the USA.
• Highlights a culture clash between Plains Indians and Eastern settlers.

Early History and Culture Clash

• In 1763, British established a frontier along the Appalachian Mountains.
• Settlers not allowed beyond this line; land left to Indians.
• New U.S. leaders opened the frontier, allowing settlers to move through.
• Government could only buy Indian land.
• Over 90 years, treaties forced Indians to cede land to whites.

Plains Indians

• Tribes: Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho.
• Developed a nomadic lifestyle adapted to the harsh environment of the Great Plains.
• Revered animals like eagles, bears, and buffalo as spiritual connectors.
• Believed in treating Mother Earth kindly.
• Saw nature as a bountiful system, fitting in rather than exploiting it.

The Buffalo

• Central to the Plains Indians' way of life.
• Provided food, clothing, fuel, and materials for tools and housing.
• Destruction of buffalo by white hunters was economic warfare against Indians.
• By 1910, only 85 buffalo remained from millions.

Conflicts and Settler Expansion

• Wagon trains disrupted buffalo herds; Plains tribes starved and fought back.
• U.S. engaged in prolonged war with the Plains tribes.
• Government used hunters to destroy buffalo, crippling Indian economy.

Settlements and Railroads

• Easterners saw land as unused; railroads expanded across the West.
• Railroads facilitated cattle business, settlement, and city growth.
• Plains Indians' nomadic life disrupted by rail expansion.

Cattle Ranchers and Homesteaders

• Post-Civil War boom in cattle business.
• Texas Longhorns and railroads promoted cattle ranching.
• Trails like Chisholm and Sedalia led to markets.
• Ranching led to overgrazing and eventual decline by late 1880s.
• Homesteaders moved west due to crowded, expensive eastern land.
• Government incentives like Homestead Act and Timber Culture Act aided settlement.

Defeat of the Indians

• 1834 Permanent Indian Frontier aimed to limit expansion.
• Treaties of 1851 and 1867 failed to prevent conflict.
• Sioux and Cheyenne defeated after Little Bighorn.
• Native culture and land destroyed; population plummeted.

Exam Preparation Tips

• Understand order of events over exact dates.
• Use visuals to remember key events.
• Focus on source-based questions and the broader context of historical facts.

Resources

• Further reading and sample questions available on the BBC Bitesize website.
• Highlighter pens recommended for revision.