Applying for History PhD in the US from the UK

[eh1688]

I have a few questions because of how different the two higher education systems are.

1) What is intended from your writing sample? Is the purpose simply to show that you can write to a high standard, or does it actually need to be closely related to what you intend to research as part of your PhD? My best piece of writing is about British history, but I want to focus on East Asia (specifically Korea - that's why I need to go to America!) - would it be best to write something bespoke for the application (in particular using Korean-language sources)?

2) I'm starting my Master's course in October (in the UK, Master's courses are almost always one year), which means I would be applying with none of my marks from that course. Is this a problem?

3) I see all these crazy things like people applying to top PhD programs in the US with x number of publications, saying that they've gone to x number of conferences, etc. This whole culture (at least in the humanities) doesn't really exist in the UK, and it seems pretty insane to have a publication from something you have written as an undergraduate (my final-year dissertation (equivalent to a senior thesis in America) might be publishable with a lot of extra archival work, but that's unusual, and even here it's doubtful). Or does this not mean what I think it means, and a 'publication' here doesn't actually mean a publication in a frontline, peer-reviewed journal, and it's all just CV padding? When I see things like this I begin to wonder if I'm even competitive...