America 2 Flashcards
(82 cards)
When was Black Thursday
24 October 1929
What happened on Black Thursday
13 million shares sold on the New York Stock exchange on wall Street
5 times more than usual
Share prices in nearly all companies dropped
Why did Wall Street Crash happen
Inequality of wealth
Problems abroad - tariffs
Lack of confidence
People started to panic
What happened after Black Thursday
On Tuesday 29 October another mad panic - 16 million shares sold
Average share price dropped 40%
Shareholders lost $8billion
Did banks have any problems
Yes in 1929 659 banks went bankrupt as investors could not pay money to bank
Some people lost all their savings
What is over production
when more things are made than people can buy - american factories made things faster than they could sell them
What was the Great Depression
Term used on 1930s to describe effects of Wall Street Crash
What was the dust bowl
Combination of poor farming and drought meant huge storms blew away millions of acres of dry topsoil making it impossible to farm
What happened with employment after the crash
By 1932 13 million had lost their jobs, 25% of labour force
12,000 people a day lost their job and 20,000 companies closed
Between 1929 nd 1932 factory production dropped by 45% and house building fell by 80%
What is a Hobo
An unemployed worker who travelled the country looking for work
What were Hoovervilles
Settlements in urban waste ground where people who became homeless built shacks with boxes, scrap metal and cloth.
In 1932 250,000 americans stopped paying mortgages and were evicted
What was Hoover’s response to the great depression
Rugged Individualism
He believed people can overcome problems with hard work not government help
What did Hoover do to try and improve things
Reconstruction Finance Corporation - lent money to businesses in trouble and made small loans to farmers
Huge dam and road building scheme created jobs
$300 million available so states could help unemployed only $30 accepted
What was the Hawley-Smoot tariff
Introduced in 1930 taxed foreign goods in hope americans would buy cheaper US goods
Failed as other nations taxed incoming US goods to exports fell sharply and even more businesses failed
What was the Bonus Army
25,000 ex soldiers who amerced to Washington DC in summer 1932 to ask for war pension (bonus) to be paid early. Hoover set Army on them who drove them off with guns, tanks and tear gas
What is a breadline
A queue of homeless people queueing for food from a soup kitchen
Who were the candidates in the 1932 election
Herbert Hoover - hoping for reelection
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)
What were the first 100 days of FDRs presidency like?
Americans saw more action taken to end the Great depression than they saw since it began. The previous laissez faire attitude of Hoover was over
What 3 Acts came in at the start of FDRs presidency
Emergency banking Act
Economy Act
Beer Act
What was the Beer Act
End of prohibition
Gangsters out of business
Government could raise money by taxing alcohol
What was the Economy Act
All government employees had a 15% pay cut saving nearly $1 billion
What was the Emergency Banking Act
Confidence in banks all time low so FDR
Closed all banks and had them inspected
Only honest well run banks with enough cash got loans and reopened
People put money in those banks accounts as had more confidence
Well run banks could lend money to well run businesses which created jobs as businesses expand
What were the organisations FDR created called
Alphabet agencies
as they were known by their initials
What was FDRs theory behind creating alphabet agencies?
Government creates jobs by spending money
Workers earn money and start buying goods
Firms and businesses hire new worker
More people have money and can buy goods
More firms hire more people etc etc
