Theme 1 Flashcards
(40 cards)
What did President Wilson do?
Took the USA into war without consulting League of nations, he did not respect the traige of power in federal america, hard to speak to
Change of presidency and what followed?
Due to Wilson’s failures, there was a change in presidency, Harding took control.
He promised a return back to normal, the traditional american way was to return.
A big part of this was to place tariffs on all foreign goods to encourage the population to buy American. EG there was a higher tariff on Fordney-Mccumber products which allowed people to buy the american version.
Isolationism became a concept, this was America’s way of steering clear of any war as they had to focus on themselves, they were to remain cordial with other countries however, not directly involved.
An example of Isolationism is restricting the amount of immigrants that came into the country, in 1920, the amount of immigrants was restricted to 150,000 but later revised to 357,000 in 1924
The red scare 1919-1920
The red scare was influenced by a communist takeover in the USSR government in 1917. This shocked the world especially USA as communism and capitalism were in active conflict. Revolution encouraged people to go against their capitalist bosses, it produced hostility around USA. Communist party america, communist labour party estbalished who worked on sending the msg thru phamphlets and more. there were 3600 strikes, about 4 million strikers.
Rugged Individualism and laissez faire and Hoover
People to survive by themselves and their own hard work, people were beginning to get weaker due to the govt dependency. Hoover wanted to minimise this. Links to LF - minimal govt intervention. allows businesses to regulate themselves and their hours and wages.
The great depression
1929, wall street crash, stock markets gone bust. unemployment rose and hoover did nothing for 18 months as he thought it would go away like previous ones. 15 million people were unemployed by 1933
Underlying problems- Trade
The protectionist policy of the repub govt along with higher tariffs on exported goods caused conflict with other trading countries like Europe. They also put high tariffs on USA goods thus buying any american product was discouraged, hence this affected the manufacturing industry. products piled up in warehouses as no sale thus no profit.
stock market speculation?
buying stocks and shares was encouraged however when the profit slowed, they abused the system. they began borrowing money on credit from banks thus no money was left in the banks. harder for other poeple, harder for the US economy
Farming problems
there was an unequal dist of wealth where farmers in north carolina earned 10% of those in cali. 1929- borrowed money from banks which was $1000million there was no way of repaying.
lack of regulation
there was very little regulation on the economy this meant that over speculation and consumer borrowing was not dampened down enough. american banks were not as integrated,they banked alone, thus when individual banks fell, they did too
unequal dist of wealth
60% of americans population earned below 2000 annually. wealthy made up of 50% of the pop, 5% earned top 1/3 of personal income.
impact of the great depression?
unemplpyment, people sacked, lack of consumer confidence, lack of confidence in the presidency
how was the great depression dealt with by hoover
laissez faire was not working thus other approaches needed to be experimented. he asked private wealthy companies to make donations. he set up the president’s emergency committee in 1929 to help the poor find work, temporary organisations. he set up the federal farmers board to help farmers sell their products.
Bonus army?
after the war, veterans were given a payment for their service, this was a bonus to any other payments that they had. this money was to be accessed in 1945 however, when the depression hit people demanded for their money. the bank and givt refused causing a massive uproar. in 1932, 150,000 to 200,000 marched to washington, met with tear gas and violence by the police.
republicans losing votes and democrats being favoured?
due to the poor handling of the economic crisis, people began to lose faith in the republicans. democrats being favoured more in public and they also began to gain more seats in the senates. 1931, they had a more seats in the house of representatives.
why did repub lose in the 1930’s election?
president emergency committee was too overwhelmed, it had a lack of support.
unemployment went from 4.6 million to 14 million
repubs had no other suitable candidate than hoover reapplying.
The character of Roosevelt
communicating well, well liked in govt and senates, had a good rela with public, fireside chats, made use of technology urging people to buy radios to listen in, balancing the economy. very charismatic, restored faith in the presidency that had been lost due to Hoover
The character of Roosevelt, how the presidency changed
communicating well, well liked in govt and senates, had a good rela with public, fireside chats, made use of technology urging people to buy radios to listen in, balancing the economy. very charismatic, restored faith in the presidency that had been lost due to Hoover.
knew how to manipulate govt, had bills passed for domestic changes within a v few time of being president.
the new deal and what did it offer
a new economic way of thinking, promising change. the new deal created alphabet agencies which were designed to help people find work. NATIONAL RECOVERY ADMINISTRATION set up to enforce codes in businesses- minimum wage and hours. Agricultural agency: regulated the agricultural industry eg farming gave farmers subsidies to produce less coz mechanisation.
what were the political changes as a result of Roosevelt’s presidency
increased white house staff, a seperate executive office was set up to deal with administration. fireside chats, press more involved HOWEVER, some of his policies created inflation, rich disliked him, supreme court ruled his policies as unconstsitutional, violated the power structure by appointing Supreme court judges who favoured him.
ww2 and what it consisted off/impacted
between 1939, 45 roosevelt was supoortive of its allies, he gave a choice to the young men that they could enrol in the war if they wanted to. however this undermined the US neutrality act which said that if they fought overseas, they could lose their liscence.
WW2- ECONOMICS
- huge economic boost for america
- he set the usa up for war production which was to be sent to the allies- created more jobs in factories.
- the production was sent on a cash and carry basis- money for ammunition.
lend lease act was passed in 1941 which was that britain could return back the weapons after the war bec they were too broke to pay. he knew he couldnt get congress to overturn the us neuatrality act under which usa could not supply britain with ammunition.
value of this was 51billion.
war impact socially
america went to war 8 december 1941 after japan bombed pearl harbour, within 1 year the war produced 41billion of goods. unemployment dropped because of men going to war
industry profits rose from 17million in 1940 to 28 million in 1943
600k died and 400k wounded.- bad
what influenced the red scare - 1952 to 1954
- many hostile feelings in the USA as after ww1 many european countries fell to communism
- USSR spying on USA - 1948 elizabeth bentley claimed that she had been part of a moscow communist led ring underwhich she spied on the USA.
- whitaker chambers investigated govt off for spying
- trial of rosenburg and alger hiss, they were found guilty
- 1949, china fell to communism and truman was blamed by chinese lobby members for not supporting kai chieng shek however he was told not to bec of him being corrupt. regardless there was debate that more should have been done to prevent.
jospeph mccarthy
1950-1954- senator joseph mccarthy led an anti communist campaign. spoke to a womens rally saying he had names of 205 govt officials who had been part of communism. however when asked to produce the list, he saif he forgot it on the plane and later revised the number to 57.
