roaring 20s Flashcards
(23 cards)
How did USA benefit from WW1
- US lent billions of dollars to Allies which would be paid back with interest.
- War increased demand and therefore encouraged mechanisation, resulting in goods being produced more cheaply.
- Food shortages in Europe meant farmers could see crops for higher prices.
- USA gained control of international markets as rivals were busy fighting, replacing Germany as leader in chemical and plastics industries.
Henry Ford and Mass production
Ford pioneered new methods of production through a conveyor belt being used to assemble cars.
Reduced time to produce model T from 13 hrs to 1 h 30mins
This resulted in prices of cars dropping.
Ford used advertisiment as well leading to the company’s sales to soarl
By 1925 half of the world’s cars were Model Ts.
Mass production was used across different companies and stimulated growth in other industries.
Hire purchase
Allowed customers to buy the goods they wanted with a small deposit and then pay the rest in weekly/monthly instalments.
This was pioneered by the car industry and saw sales increase with 6/10 cars sold being done via hire purchase.
Advertising
Encouraged increased spending from americans
New technologies such as radios pioneered this.
Led to more consumerism from americans and contributed to the economic boom.
Issues in farming
Mechanisation led to over-production as supplhy overtook demand.
This lowered prices and profits of goods and sharecroppers (usually black americans) suffered.
Economic decline in europe led to falling sales of american crops.
Prohibition destroyed the market for wheat and barley.
Tariff wars.
All this led to farm income falling from $32 billion in 1919 to $13 billion in 1928.
Decline of older industries
Coal industry faced increasing competition from oil, gas and electricity industries, along with competition from imported goods and mechanisation.
Railroad industry faced increasing competition due to increase in car ownership and road network development.
Textile industry faced competition from man made fibres and changes in women fashion reduced cloth needed. Imports led to comopetition.
Cinema 1920s
Increased majorly in popularity as people had more disposable income.
Sound and colour was introduced to cinema as well.
Cinema numbers increased from 8000 in 1910 to 17,000 in 1926 and 303,000 in 1930.
Clara Bow in It and The Wild Party rose to fame due to flapper lifestyle.
Charlie Chaplin famous for film such as ‘The Kid’ and The gold rush for his tramp-like image that was very comedic.
Music
Jazz music developed in Southern States by the black community.
It was associated with the new flapper lifestyle and crime and therefore was rejected by many older people.
Often played in speakeasies and in clubs owned by prohibition gangsters.
Dance halls rose in popularity in turn as well.
Sports
Matches began to be broadcasted on the radio growing its popularity.
NFL was set up.
Boxing grew as jack dempsey’s matches attracted 120,000 people at one point.
Baseball and tennis became increasingly popular as well.
Radio
over 40 percent of American homes owned a radio listening to it became one of the most popular forms of entertainment.
Allowed people to keep up wiht current affairs and replaced the newspaper.
By 1930 there were over 600 radio stations NBC and CBS being the most prominent.
Women pre-WW1
Single women to be accompanied by a chaperone.
Should not smoke or drink in public.
They wore long dresses and little make-up, occupying low-paid jobs.
Not allowed to vote.
Changing attitudes towards women
During the war women showed that they were capable of a wider range of work.
Women gradually started gaining the vote state by state.
19th Amendment gave all women right to vote passed in 1919.
Flappers
During the 1920s, younger middle and upper class women began to challenge traditional view on women.
More independent social life and liberal lifestyle.
A typical flapper:
Went out with no chaperone.
Wore make-up + perfume
Wore short skirts+loud colours
Cut their hair short.
Drank and smoked in public
Danced etc.
High rates of immigration
By 1919, 40 million immigrants lived in america.
up to that point ‘open-door policy’ was adopted to help with colonisation.
Anti-immigration sentiments
Large increase in number of poorer immigrants arriving from Eastern Europe.
WW1 led to many poor people escaping to America.
Americans started to feel ‘swamped’ by number of immigrants.
Growth in xenophobia as immigrants seen as stupid.
Bolshevik revolution led to americans feeling threatened by immigrants bringing communism to america.
Government legislation on immigration.
Literacy Test implemente din 1917.
Emergency quota act 1921 introduced caps on number of each ethnic group in america.
Immigration Act 1929 limited immigration to 150,000 per year, with no asian people being allowed.
The Red scare
Americans were alarmed by the communist revolution in USSR and feared immigration would spread same ideals.
In 1919 3600 workers’ strikes added to the fear that a communist revolution was pending.
Anarchists bombings in 1919 Apr in Milwaukee (10 dead) and 1920 Sep (38 dead).
Palmer Raids
In April 1919 an anarchist bomb was detonated in Attorney-General Mitchell Palmer’s house.
This led to the Palmer raids whereby he organised a crackdown on communism.
6000 suspected communists were arrested.
Trade unions, jewish, catholic and black people were targeted.
600 were deported.
Sacco and Vanzetti
Arrested on 5th May 1920 for carrying out a robbery at a shoe store.
Both were Italian immigrants.
Case against them was not strong as despite witnesses identifying the men they had strong alibis.
The judge was determined to find the 2 guilty and meida coverage was high.
Both were self-confessed anarchists and the prosecution mainly focused on them being immigrants and their beliefs.
The jury found them guilty and they were executed via electric chair .
Clearly showcases red scare hysteria as they were most likely innocent.
The great migration
Jim Crow laws in the south coupled with lynchings led to 1 million black people migrating north to escape the segregation and prosecution.
Demand for factory jobs were high and many black americans took up jobs in steel and car-making.
They were treated as second-class citizens; however, still suffered less than they did in the south.
Ku Klux Klan
racist organisation which aimed to terrorise black americans.
Made solely of WASPs, as members saw themselves as superior to other races.
Concerns over immigration caused membership to spike going from 100,000 in 1920 to 5 million 1925.
Dressed in white robes and hoods.
Carried out lynchings, floging, brandings, mutilation etc.
Rarely brought to justice as fellow members part of courts and politicians afriad to speak out in order to secure white votes.
Many in high ranking positions in the country, e.g. senator of mississippi Theodore G bilbo
Prohibition introduction
In January 1920 the 18th ammendment made it illegal to sell alchohol.
introduced due to pressure from groups such as anti-saloon league and women’s christian temperance union.
Alchohol was linked to crime and lawlessness incl domestic abuse.
Led to inefficiency at work and lowered moral standards.
Prohibition and crime8
Prohibition proved impossible to enforce.
Bootleggers (e.g. Al Capone) majorly profited from smugglin alchohol.
Moonshiners arose who distilled their on illegal home brews (many of which very harmful)
Speakeasies grew as illegal bars and by 1925 there were over 100,000 in NY alone.
Prohibition officers took bribes and rarely was someone convicted of breaking the prohibiton law.
Al Capone rose to prominence by bribing officers and violently dealing with rivals to establish a vast empire.
killed 200 rivals between 1925 and 1929.
