AQA_2024: A-level History - Component 1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 (Merged Question Paper and Marking Scheme)

AQA_2024: A-level History - Component 1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 (Merged Question Paper and Marking Scheme) A-level HISTORY Component 1K The making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975 Thursday 23 May 2024 Materials For this paper you must have:  an AQA 16-page answer book. Instructions Morning  Use black ink or black ball-point pen. Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes  Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 7042/1K.  Answer three questions. In Section A answer Question 01. In Section B answer two questions. Information  The marks for questions are shown in brackets.  The maximum mark for this paper is 80.  You will be marked on your ability to: – use good English – organise information clearly – use specialist vocabulary where appropriate. Advice  You are advised to spend about: – 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A – 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B. To revise The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975, focus on these key areas: 1. Post-Civil War Reconstruction and Industrialization (1865–1900): o After the Civil War, Reconstruction aimed to rebuild the South and address African American rights. The period also saw rapid industrialization, with the rise of big businesses like railroads, steel, and oil, leading to urbanization and labor movements. 2. Imperialism and World War I (1898–1918): o The Spanish-American War (1898) marked the U.S.'s emergence as an imperial power, acquiring territories like Puerto Rico and the Philippines. World War I solidified U.S. status as a global power, despite its rejection of the League of Nations. 3. The Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the New Deal (1920–1941): o The 1920s were marked by economic prosperity and cultural change. The Great Depression led to the New Deal, which aimed to provide relief and reforms through programs like Social Security and labor protections. 4. World War II (1941–1945): o The U.S. entered WWII after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, emerging as a global military and economic superpower. The atomic bomb and involvement in the creation of the United Nations cemented its global dominance. 5. The Cold War (1947–1975): o The U.S. and Soviet Union became locked in the Cold War, with conflicts like the Korean and Vietnam War testing U.S. power. The Civil Rights Movement and Watergate scandal impacted domestic politics. This overview captures the U.S.'s rise to superpower status and the challenges it faced across these decades. IB/M/Jun24/E5 7042/1K 2 IB/M/Jun24/7042/1K Section A Answer Question 01. Extract A William McKinley took full advantage of the opportunities provided by the war of 1898 to popularise the expansionist doctrines of duty, dollars and destiny. He fashioned an overseas empire, rooted US influence more deeply in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and pushed for greater world involvement. But the United States did not become a major player in world affairs immediately. The brief flurry of enthusiasm for empire barely outlasted the war against Spain. The need to consolidate territory already acquired consumed great energy and resources. While busily solidifying its position in traditional areas of influence in the Caribbean and the Pacific, the United States did not acquire new colonies or involve itself in the frantic scrambling for alliances that characterised European foreign policies before World War 1. Between 1901 and 1913 the United States did, however, take a much more active role in the world. Brimming with optimism and exuberance, Americans firmly believed that their ideals and institutions would be the way of the future. Adapted from GC Herring, From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776, 2016 5 10 Extract B The consequences of the commercial transformation of America from 1890 to 1920 were, of course, chiefly economic, but they also began to affect international relations. The growth of American industrial power and overseas trade was accompanied by a more assertive diplomacy. Claims to a special moral position which made American foreign policy superior to the Old World’s were intermingled with racial arguments, and with the urging of industrial and agricultural pressure groups for secure overseas markets. The traditional, if always exaggerated, alarm about threats to the Monroe Doctrine was accompanied by calls for the United States to fulfil its ‘Manifest Destiny’ across the Pacific. Entangling alliances still had to be avoided but from 1900 the United States was being urged by many groups at home into a much more activist diplomacy despite the fact that in 1892 the ‘New York Herald’ had proposed the abolition of the department responsible for foreign policy since it had ‘so little business to conduct overseas’. Adapted from P Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, 1987 5 10 3 Extract C In the 1890s most perceptive economic and political leaders and the editors of key business and financial journals realised that farmers made up the majority of the politically active population in the West. That meant it was vital to provide overseas markets for agricultural surplus if the urban elites were to maintain and consolidate their power. Republicans recognised the resulting danger to their position. If they could not weaken the opposition arising from the farmers in the West, then they would lose power and authority to the newly formed People’s – or Populist – Party, inspired by men such as William Jennings Bryan. The Republican l