1. USA Flashcards
(44 cards)
How did the First World War contribute to the economic boom?
- USA sold may goods to Britain, France & Russia and had managed to take over world trade whilst other countries were fighting
- USA leant money to the Allies and were paid back with large interest rates
- Profits from the war and huge resources were used to create new industries
How did republican policies contribute to the economic boom?
Laissez-faire •Allowing businesses to set their own rules (hours/pay) Low taxation •Low tax, more money to spend on goods Tariffs •High tax on foreign goods
How did new industries/new methods contribute to the economic boom?
Assembly line production led to mass production which meant cheaper goods, such as fridges, freezers, hoovers and cars
What factors contributed to the economic boom?
First World War
Republican policies
New industries/New methods e.g assembly line
Hire purchase + buying on the margin e.g goods & stock market
How did hire purchase + buying on the margin contribute to the economic boom?
Hire purchase- borrow money, pay back later.
Buying on the margin - borrow 90% of the cash, buy shares, sell them and pay back loan
Who was Franklin D Roosevelt + what were his policies?
•Became president in 1933 after winning by 7 million votes
•Promised a ‘New Deal’
Believed in an active government that could help the people
•Democrat
Who was Herbert Hoover + what were his policies?
- Nicknamed the ‘Do Nothing’ president
- Hoovervilles + Hoover blankets named after him
- Republican
What was prohibition?
A law which banned selling, making or transporting alcohol
•Started January 1920
What were the consequences of the crash?
•658 banks failed in 1929
1352 banks failed in 1930
•Wages of workers reduced by up to 60%
•1933 - 14 million unemployed + USA trade reduced due to revenge tariffs overseas
How did overproduction contribute to the crash?
- 1929 US industry running out of customers
- Everyone who wanted goods already had them and they lasted a long time so no need to buy any more
- Workers lost jobs
- ‘revenge’ Tariffs on overseas goods so could not sell goods overseas
What were the causes of the Wall Street Crash?
- Lack of Export Market
- Speculation (over confidence)
- Uneven distribution of wealth
- Over production
What were Hoovervilles?
- People who lost their homes slept on park benches or cardboard shacks
- People relied on soup kitchens + charity hand outs
- Shanty towns became nicknamed Hoovervilles
Who were Sacco + Vanzetti?
- Italian immigrants who were executed for ‘robbery’
- Were believed to have committed murder in the past
- Judge was biased as they were foreign
- They had radical communist beliefs
- Became scape goats during the red scare
What evidence was there that there was an economic boom in the 1920s?
1920 - $2 million worth of radios purchase
1929 - $600 million worth of radios purchased
1929 - 95 million people a week going to the cinema
Hire purchase increased consumer goods
US industry boomed - customer shares went up
Why could an increasing number of people afford to buy more consumer goods?
- Hire Purchase (borrowing money)
- Bought shares on the margin (only paying 10%, paying full price from profits)
- Mass production meant that goods were cheaper
What was the Motor car industry + Henry Ford?
- Henry Ford - owner of Ford Automobile Industry
- Model T - Henry Ford’s most famous car, only available in black - $295
- Employees were paid $5
- A new car was produced every 10 seconds
- 10 million cars sold by 1924
- Trade unions banned from Henry Ford’s factories
What was an assembly line?
A system of production where the product came to the worker.
What was mass production?
Making products in large quantities using the assembly line. This made goods cheaper and more affordable.
Who were the most famous actors at this time? How did their behaviour concern conservative Americans?
Gloria Swanson •Married + divorced 4 times •Has several abortions •Obsessed with money •Vain
Rudolph Valentino
•Vain
•People thought he was gay
•Divorced
Clara Bow •Liked to go out and party •Affairs •Divorced •Red hair •Red animals •Outfits
Charlie Chaplin •Left wing views •Divorced •Affairs •Communist
What was entertainment like in the 1920s?
Sport •Baseball became a big money sport •Sports stars like Jack Dempsey - Boxing Babe Ruth - Baseball Bobby Jones - Golf
Music + Dance •Jazz music + Jazz stars like Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington Bessie Smith •New dance crazes like the Black Bottom and Charleston •Cotton Club in NY
Radio •1922 - 508 radio stations •Music was played on radio •Sales of records fell as radio listening increased •1926 - First national network on air
Cinema
•Hays Code set rules on what could be shown on screen e.g length of kisses
•Audience figures doubled 100 million cinema tickets sold per week
•1927 - Talkies were introduced (Jazz Singer was like 1st talkie)
What was it like for women in 1920s America?
Flappers
•Party girls
•Short skirts
•Bobbed hair
1920 - women were given the right to vote
Financial independence
More contraception, birth rate reduced from 3.6 in 1900 to 2.5 + divorce rate rose to 166 per 1000 marriages
Vacuum cleaners + washing machines helped women
•WWI - women took o men’s jobs and were treated more equally
BUT
•most women in rural areas still poor, not flappers, still a home looking after their families
What was the order of the US presidents?
Hoover Roosevelt (FDR) Truman Eisenhower Kennedy (assassinated) Johnson Nixon
What was the Johnson -Reid Act and why was it put in place?
By 1920 concern was growing at the number of recently arrived immigrants, particularly in the cities. Congress passed the 1924 Johnson-Reid Act which fixed a quote of 150,000 immigrants P.a - with almost all of them being from Europe, Asian immigration was halted completely.
What was the Red Scare?
Americans begin to feat that immigrants might bright communist ideas with them. Following strikes in 1919, several thousand suspected communists were arrested and some were even deported. Anti-communist hysteria swept the country- the Red Scare.
