America 1920-1973 Flashcards
What policies helped make America wealthier during the 1920’s?
Republican policies
What made American companies very rich during World War One?
Exporting weapons and food to Europe
By what year were American companies very rich by exporting weapons and food to Europe in World War One?
1918
What economic issue happened after World War One?
A depression
Why did a depression happened after World War One?
Businesses contracted
Turned into peaceful production
What does opportunity mean?
A good position, chance or prospect for advancement or success
What does inequality mean?
Condition of being unequal in social, economic or political grounds. Not having the same opportunities as others
How many men died in the First World War?
100,000 men
What was the Treaty of Versailles?
Peace agreement
When was the Treaty of Versailles signed?
June 1919
How much influence did the USA have in the Treaty of Versailles on decisions made?
Big influence
What is a referendum?
Big public vote
When did referendum take place in the USA?
After the Treaty of Versailles was signed
Why was there a referendum after the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the USA?
Asked whether the USA shelter the peace-keeping organisation, the League of Nations
What did the public vote in the referendum about joining the League of Nations?
No
Why did the public vote ‘no’ in the referendum about joining the League of Nations?
As they did not want to get involved in other countries’ problems
When did the US government ban all alcoholic drinks?
Start of January 1920
Why did the US government ban all alcoholic drinks?
Reaction to rising crime rates
What countries rising crime rates caused the prohibition?
Big northern cities such as Washington and Chicago
What was prohibition?
Ban of all alcoholic drinks
Who introduced the prohibition?
President Woodrow Wilson
Who replaced Woodrow Wilson after the introduction of prohibition?
Warren Harding
Why did Harding replace Wilson as president?
Had policy called ‘America First’
What was the ‘America First’ policy?
Talked about plans to return to normality where America focused on its own problems
What scandal happened in the middle of the 1920’s?
Sacco-Vanzetti immigration scandal
Who were Sacco and Vanzetti?
Italian immigrants
What happened to Sacco and Vanzetti?
Unfairly arrested for the murder of 2 American guards
What US attitude was shown about the Sacco-Vanzetti scandal?
Negative attitude towards foreigners after the First World War
By the end of the 1920’s how many women were employed?
25% to over 10 million women
When did the US government first introduce its immigration laws?
1921
What were the immigration laws?
Put a limit on the amount of people who were allowed to the USA for work
Why did the US government set in place immigration laws?
Though immigrants would take all the America jobs and bring their countries problems with them
When did the USA introduce radio broadcasting?
1921
What was the ‘Ford-McCumber Tariff’?
Tax on foreign goods
When was the ‘Ford-McCumber Tariff’ introduced?
1922
What did the US government hope the ‘Ford-McCumber Tariff’ would do?
Would encourage Americans to but American goods
Why would Americans be encouraged to buy American goods with the ‘Ford-McCumber Tariff’?
It was expensive for Americans to buy goods from abroad
What was the ‘Johnson Read Immigration Act’?
Law reducing down the number of people granted entry into the USA
When was the ‘Johnson Read Immigration Act’ introduced?
1924
How many people did ‘Johnson Read Immigration Act’ allow from each country?
2% of population
When did the lives of housewives change dramatically?
Mid 1920’s
How did housewives lives change?
Invention of machines that did house chores
What Greta inventions made housewives lives easier?
Vacuum cleaner and fridge-freezer
What further immigration laws were introduced in 1929?
Stopped all immigrants from Asia coming to live in the USA
What year did Britain grant the right for women to vote?
1918
What year did the USA grant women the right to vote?
End of 1920
How many years behind Britain was the USA in granting women to vote?
Year and a half
When did new technology become increasingly popular?
End of the 1920’s
How many radios had been purchased from ordinary American families by the end of the 1920’s?
$600 million worth of radios
How many people were flocking to the new cinemas by 1929?
Over 95 million people
How had the new cinemas in the 1929 improved?
Movies with sound
What were the movies with sound commonly called in 1929?
‘Talking pictures ‘
How many American families owned a car by 1930?
23 million
What ratio of families had a car in 1930?
1 in 4 families
How many immigrants arrived in the USA after 1919?
1 million
What countries did immigrants common arrive from after 1919?
Europe
Russia, Italy, Spain, Ireland
What did Woodrow Wilson want after World War One?
To join the League of Nations, this never happened
What happened in the early 1920’s that disturbed the public peace?
Strikes of demonstrations
Protesting
Why were the ‘good times’ beginning for most American in the 1920’s?
New technologies such as microwaves
What did the USA have more of than other countries in the 1920’s?
Motor cars
Who replaced Warren Harding as president?
Calvin Coolidge
What did Coolidge do in American industry?
Protects American businesses
Taxed international companies importing goods into America
What mass developments happened in the 1920’s?
Mass production, mass skyscrappers
What resulted from mass production and skyscrapers in the 1920?
More businesses
What did advertising do for American businesses?
Media of cinema was used to advertise American businesses
What group of people were being terrorised in the 1920?
African-American
Blacks
Who was terrorising African-Americans?
Ku Klux Klan
What group of people didn’t do well in the ‘boom’ in the south in the 1920’s?
Farmers
What happened during the prohibition years?
Law was abused by gangs
What gang was famous for abusing the prohibition law in America?
Capone the Italian mafia
What was the ‘jazz age’?
Blacks have opportunity to better them
What effect did the ‘jazz age’ have?
Brought blacks and white peoples together
What happened on the 24th October 1929?
The ‘Great Depression’ began
Who was president when the ‘Great Depression’ occurred?
Herbert Hoover
What year did Hoover get elected?
1928
What help the US boom in the 1920’s?
Improved technology and government policy
What is laissez-faire?
Leave something alone. In business, the government would not interfere to allow profits to increase
What is the Ku Klux Klan?
A white supremacist organisation
Where was the Ku Klux Klan popular in America?
Southern states of the USA
What is a tariff?
A type of tax charged on imports
What animal represented the Republicans?
An elephant
What animal represented the Democrats?
Donkey
What belief did the Republicans follow?
Laissez-faire
Tariff
Low taxation
What beliefs did Democrats follow?
Preferred to intervene in everyday life if needed
Who was likely to vote for the Republicans?
Rich businesses men
Who was likely to vote for the Democrats?
Ordinary people
Who did the Democrats favoured helping?
People in need e.g poor,elderly
Why did the Republicans follow low taxation?
Workers had more money to spend on American products
What happens if American buy more products?
Increased sales and boosted profits even more
Who benefitted the most short term during the 1920’s?
Businesses men
How were companies effected during the 1920’s?
Profits increased
What resulted from people’s confidence in economy improving?
They bought more goods
Why did the economy grow during the 1920’s?
Increased sales of consumer items
What consumer items had increased sales?
Radios
vacuum cleaners
washing machines
What is mass production?
Making items quickly and on big scale so making them cheaper
What factories were used in mass production?
Purpose-built factories
How were newspapers used to advertise?
Ram adverts persuading people they needed the latest products
What is hire purchase?
Paying in instalments
What is credit?
A kind of loan
What was the real secret of the boom?
Hire purchase and credit
What happened to the wages during the boom?
Increased but not much
How did credit aid in the boom?
People didn’t need the money at the time they wanted to purchase a car or radio
What did American increased confidence in the economy encourage people to invest in?
The stock market
What is the stock market?
The buying and selling of shares in companies
Why did people buy shares in companies?
To get a dividend or sell their share for more profit
What did mass production create more of?
Jobs
Why were jobs create in mass production?
People needed to work on the assembly line
What was the ‘assembly line’ method?
Parts of a product were made an then passed on to the next part of the production
How many products were made from the assembly line?
Churned our millions of products
Who invented the assembly line?
Henry Ford
What did Henry Ford make?
Cars
What was the most important industry in the 1920’s?
Motor industry
When had the motor car industry been developed?
1890
Who built the first cars?
Blacksmiths and other skilled craftmen
Why didn’t many people have cars in 1900?
Long time to make
Very expensive
How many cars were made in 1900?
4000
Who revolutionised car production?
Henry Ford
When did Henry Ford set up the first assembly line?
1913
Where was the first production line set up?
Giant shed in Detroit
What went in the beginning of the assembly line (car production)?
Skeleton car
What came out at the end of the assembly line?
A new car
How many Ford Model T. were made between 1908 and1925?
15 million were produced
What rate did cars come of the production like in 1929?
1 every 10 secs
How many cars were made in 1929?
4.8 million
How many workers were employed directly from the car industry?
Hundreds of thousands
What other industries did the car industry create jobs for?
Glass Steal Leather Rubber Petrol
What percentage of glass production went to the car industry in the 1920’s?
75%
What was the biggest single employer in the 1920’s?
Road construction
What ratio of people had cars in the USA in the 1920’s?
1 to 5 people
What ratio of people had cars in Britain in the 1920’s?
1 in 43
What ratio of people had a car in Russia in the 1920’s?
1 in 7,000
How did cars in the USA further boost house-building?
Cars enabled people to live in suburbs
How much did the Ford 1925 Model T car cost?
$290
Why did farmers struggle during the 1920’s?
Demand for food fell dramatically after World War One
What groups of people were most likely to be unemployed in the 1920’s?
African-Americans
Hispanics
Immigrant groups
How did Laissez-faire approach from the Republicans effect the poor?
Very little help. Believed the situation would sort itself out
Why didn’t some industries benefit from the economic boom?
Those industries were not in demand
Why was hire purchase important during the boom?
Encouraged people to spend more money
Why was the role of government crucial in causing the boom in the 1920’s?
Polices encouraged spending
Why were the 1920’s called ‘the Roaring Twenties’?
Massive so and cultural changes
What consumers goods and services had great changes?
Technology
Music
Dance
Fashion
What did many young people in cities reject?
Traditional values
What could ‘the Roaring Twenties’ suggest about change?
Wind of change was roaring through society
Why did people take part in leisure activities more often in the 1920’s?
More time and money to spend on leisure activities
How much had the average wage rose by in the 1920’s?
11.1 per cent
How much did the average working hours fall by in the 1920’s?
Fell by 5 hours a week
Who particularly experienced the increase wage and decreased hours during the 1920’s?
People in cities
Where in the 1920’s was traditional values still valued?
Rural areas
What did car ownership make the consumers feel?
Greater sense of freedom
In both cities and rural areas
What is the federal system?
Individual states look after their own internal affairs.
Issues that affect all states are dealt with by Congress
What is the constitution?
A Document that details how the government is supposed to operate and what it is allowed to do
Who make up the Congress?
The Senate + The House of Representatives
