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History > America 1920s > Flashcards

America 1920s Flashcards

1
Q

Economic Boom

A

A period of time in the 1920s when America saw an increase in production, sales and wages
(A period of prosperity)

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2
Q

Causes of the economic boom

A

Industrial Strength - Rich in natural resources (steel, coal and textiles) = factories = goods to sell (oil motor cars, telephones and electric lighting) + agriculture was efficient and most productive

WW1- sold weapons and foodstuffs to Britain + joined war late so weren’t stripped of resources; took over European trade aground the world : outstripped Germany of chemical products

Republican policies - Laissez Faire + little tax + tariffs to boost American economy

Market for consumer goods (instalments) - advertisements encouraged to buy products + mail order made buying goods easier + Hire Purchase

Stocks and shares - 1000s bought these

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3
Q

Cycle of prosperity

A
  1. More money available to spend on consumer goods
  2. Increased demands for consumer goods
  3. Increased production
  4. Increased employment
    Back to 1.
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4
Q

Republicans

A

Right wing political party who believe in competition and usually appeal to middle and upper classes
Republican Presidents : Warren Harding (1921 - 23)
Calvin Coolidge (1923 - 29)
Herbert Hoover (1929 - 33)

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5
Q

Republican policies

A

Isolationism - keep out of foreing affairs to avoid imports and therefore allow Americans to keep their money

Taxes - taxed as little as possible (esp the rich) = keep money to spend on goods and boost businesses

Laissez faire - left businesses to do their own thing = businessmen could come up with their own products to make money

Tariffs - Emergency Tariff + Fordney McCumber Tariff

Stocks and shares

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6
Q

The two tariffs of the 1920s

A

1) Emergency Tariff May 1921 - increased the tax duty on imports by an average of 40%

2) Fordney - McCumber Tariff 1922 - meant tariffs on imported goods were the highest that they’d ever been

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7
Q

5 entertainment industries

A

Sports
Music
Movies -
Cartoons and comics
Radio

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8
Q

People unable to join in with the flapper lifestyle

A

Black people
Immigrants
Impoverished
Women in the Bible Belt

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9
Q

People who did not benefit from the economic boom

A

African Americans
Immigrants
The lower class
Bible Belt (south)
Old industry workers

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10
Q

Immigrant

A

A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country

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11
Q

Why were immigrants treated poorly

A

Americans favoured WASPs
And they favoured isolationism
Feared communism

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12
Q

Quotas on immigration

A

1921 Immigration Quota Act : immigrants were allowed in proportion to the number of people of the same nationality who had been in America in 1910. The figure was set at 3%

1924 National Origins Act : This is reduced to 2% of the 1890 census. More groups from Northern Europe (whiter people) allowed to enter.

1929 - Only 150,000 immigrants allowed in. No Asians.

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13
Q

Prohibition

A

The prevention by law of the manufacture and sale of alcohol
- Jan 6th 1920 - Volstead Act (18th Amendment)

They wanted to stop crime and improve behaviour

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14
Q

Organised Crime

A

Criminal activities that are planned and controlled by powerful groups and carried out on a large scale.

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15
Q

Civil Rights

A

The rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality

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16
Q

Segregation

A

The action of setting someone or something apart from others

17
Q

White supremacy

A

The belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races

18
Q

Race Relations

A

Relations between members or communities of different races within 1 country

19
Q

Why was Segregation allowed ?

A

Plessy v Ferguson law passed in May 1896

20
Q

What were the Jim Crow laws ?

A

The nickname given to segregation laws.
Crow : skin colour & supposed ‘scavenger’ behaviour

21
Q

What happened to people who didn’t follow the Jim Crow laws?

A

They were
Beaten
Bombed
Lynched
Imprisoned

22
Q

Simple timeline of black history

A

Jan 1863 - Emancipation Proclamation: slaves are freed
Dec 1865 - Thirteenth amendment : slavery is abolished
1866 - KKK is formed
July 1868 - Fourteenth amendment : American citizenship granted to former slaves
May 1896 - Plessy v Ferguson : supreme court insist segregation is legal
May 1909 - 1st campaign for civil rights : NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of coloured People formed
1914 - 1919 - 500,000 black southerners move to the North during the great migration
1917 - 1918 - 200,000 Black Americans fight during WW1

23
Q

Negatives of Republican Policies

A

1) No foreign competition = industries and businesses didn’t improve services or products

2) Many other countries imposed high tariffs on American goods = damaged global economy

3) High prices and taxes meant life remained extremely difficult for the poor

24
Q

‘Roaring 20s’

A

Growing prosperity = more money to spend on goods

Avg. working week went from 47.4 hours to 44.2 hours

Avg. wages grew by 11%

25
Entertainment - MOVIES
- Founding of Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer : leading producer of films in the 1920s - Silent film stars (Buster Keaton, Charlie, Chaplin, Clara Bow) - later ‘talkies’ became popular - Movies showed - newsreels, political leaders = country stayed connected to happenings in the country. - Hollywood developed into a major film industry
26
Entertainment - SPORT
- High school and junior high school students could play sports they previously couldn’t - Golf introduced to middle class - Motor Sports : Henry Seagrave - Baseball lots of big money sports teams like : New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox
27
Entertainment - MUSIC
- Jazz was very popular : brought by black people from the countryside - Famous Black musicians : Louis Armstrong : Famous Album = West End Blues Duke Ellington : composed 1000s of songs known worldwide, America’s greatest composer Bessie Smith : ‘Blues Empress’, her first recording sold 2 million copies in the first year
28
Entertainment - RADIO
National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) : transmitted signals nationwide reaching nearly every area of the US - Allowed advertising to develop as well as things like the Billboard Music Charts - Allowed public to hear the same news stories and programmes - End of 1922 = 508 licensed radio stations in America
29
Entertainment- BOOKS, MAGAZINES AND CARTOONS
- Winnie the Pooh and Betty Boop = most well known in 20s - Book of the Month Club and the Literary Guild - Writers strayed from religion and previous Victorian image of decency = wrote frankly and freely - Famous writers = T.S Elliot, Robert Frost, F.Scott Fitzgerald and many post war young writers
30
Modern Women in 1920s
- Known as ‘flappers’ - Went out alone with men and smoked and drank in public - Most were urban women - Took on jobs (10 million by 1929)
31
Negative reactions to Flapper Girls
- Poor women couldn’t afford it - Black women didn’t benefit - Bible Belt women didn’t adopt or like this new lifestyle - Elders didn’t like it
32
What was done to prevent immigration?
Over 40 million people moved to the US between 1850 and 1914 and they introduced : - Literacy tests = checked they could speak basic English - Quotas In order to prevent immigration
33
How did PROHIBITION fuel Organised Crime?
- Alcohol was smuggled into the country - Illegal bars called ‘speakeasies’ were set up - Valentines Day massacre - Al Capone became rich through bribery and violence - Bootleggers : smugglers for gangsters - Moonshine = poisonous as it was illegally manufactured
34
Fails and Successes of Prohibition
Negatives: - difficult to enforce - alcohol related crimes increased - officials took bribes (corruption) - Repealed by Roosevelt in 1933 Positives - alcohol consumption fell by about 30%
35
KKK
- WASPs - Strong in the south - Grew rapidly in response industrialisation, immigration and anti - Catholicism - We’re all over America
36
Harlem Renaissance
White people began to accept more black cultural ideas like jazz and other black related things like architecture, poets, painters.
37
Henry Ford and Ford T Model
Ford T Model was significant in introducing mass production and brought a rise in new technology - Used a moving assembly line he was able to build the at 1/10th the time it took to build other vehicles by hand - Workers were paid good wages despite reduced hours - Production of Model A continued for 19 years (1908 - 1928) and 50 million had been made by 1928 - Appealed to customers as they were fun and adaptive to different environments
38
Al Capone
- Was an immigrant from Italy - Earned $100,000 a year from beer sales alone - Helped the poor earn money by themselves - Owned a soup kitchen to feed the homeless

History (14 decks)

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