America After Ww1

Question 1

What had most European countries done in relation to America and the war?

Answer 1

Most European countries had borrowed huge sums of money to finance the war,and when it ended they borrowed more money to rebuild their mines, factories and communication links that had been destroyed

Question 2

How much money he had Britain owed in total to America?

Answer 2

$4277 million

Question 3

In total how much money did France owe America?

Answer 3

$3405 million

Question 4

Why were America’s farms and factories producing food and goods at full capacity?

Answer 4

Because they were exporting to Europe

Question 5

The war gave Americana high…, Full…, And good…?

Answer 5

High productivity, full employment, good wages

Question 6

What was the price of wheat per bushel in 1915, 1917, 1919?

Answer 6

1915–$0.96
19 17–$2.04
19 19–$2.16

Question 7

Why were farmers so confident during and after the war?

Answer 7

Because the price of wheat rose so high that farmers were confident that they could sell crops at a profit repay the loans

Question 8

In the early 1920s, the USA was producing …% of its corn
…% of its cotton
…% of the world’s wheat

Answer 8

75% of its corn
50% cotton
30% of its wheat

Question 9

What is laissez-faire

Answer 9

Republican policy – allowing businesses to run their own affairs without government interference, such as not passing laws to control working hours, wages or prices

Question 10

Who urged the setting up of the league nations, and what is it?

Answer 10

Woodrow Wilson at the setting up of the League of Nations, it wasn’t organisation established to promote international peace and cooperation

Question 11

Why did many Americans and the Senate not want to do in the league of Nations?

Answer 11

Because they wanted a policy of isolationism – which is not becoming involved in world politics

Question 12

Emergency tariff act – date and effect?

Answer 12

May 1921 – increased import taxes on wheat, sugar, meat, wool, and other agricultural products

Question 13

Budget and accounting act – date and effect?

Answer 13

June 1921 – put controls on government spending

Question 14

Revenue act – date and effect?

Answer 14

Charging businesses higher tax, cut wartime tax on high levels of profit

Question 15

Fordney and mccumber act – Date and effect ?

Answer 15

September 1922 – raised tariffs and extended them to industrial goods. Gave the president The power to raise tariffs yearly in line with the selling prices of these goods in the USA

Question 16

What effect did the tariffs have on American exports?

Answer 16

This Tariffs did encourage Americans to “buy American “, other countries responded by introducing their own tariffs, so US exports became more expensive and less popular

Question 17

How many European immigrants emigrated to America between 1900 and 1920?

Answer 17

12.5 million – many of these were on skilled workers from Italy and Eastern Europe

Question 18

How many immigrants from Canada, Asia and Mexico emigrated to America between 1900 and 1920?

Answer 18

1.5 million

Question 19

Why was there hi prejudice against immigrants from Eastern Europe and Italy?

Answer 19

Because they were perceived to be stupid, inferior and more likely to commit crimes

Question 20

Emergency quota act - date and effect?

Answer 20

1921 – restricted all immigration to 3% of the number of immigrants in the USA from any country in 1910

Question 21

Reed Johnson act - date and effect?

Answer 21

1924 – restricted the number of immigrants to 10% of immigrants in the USA from any country in 1910 and set a limit of 150,000 a year

Question 22

What are the three features of mass production?

Answer 22

Standardisation, division of labour, assembly line

Question 23

Standardisation?

Answer 23

They only made one kind of car, so car parts are a standard size and shape. This saves money on storage, time and labour because workers only had to learn how to deal with one set of parts

Question 24

Division of labour?

Answer 24

Instead of one or two work is building a whole car, the work was split up into a series of jobs, with one worker doing the same job over and over on lots of cars. This made the process faster

Question 25

Assembly line?

Answer 25

Each worker stayed in one place and the job came to him on a moving line

Question 26

What effect did division of labour and The assembly line have on the time it took to make a car?

Answer 26

This decreased the time it took to make a car from 12 hours to 1 hour and 33 minutes

Question 27

What did other businesses do once they saw how effective mass production was?

Answer 27

Businesses such as fridge and radio companies began applying mass production in their factories

Question 28

How did mass production affect the price of goods and give an example

Answer 28

Mass production made goods cheaper. For example in 1908 a Ford car cost $850 however in 1926 a new and improved version of the car cost $300

Question 29

How did mass production affect the number of cars in the USA and to give an example

Answer 29

In 1915 in the USA they were 1 million cars however in 1929 there were 28 million cars

Question 30

How did mass production affect employment? give examples

Answer 30

Mass production increased employment because more people were hired in factories to make cars and car parts.
Ford dealerships provided mechanics by 1912 there were 7000 Ford dealerships
By 1929, over 4 million people depended on the car industry and industry providing raw materials – rubber, glass, leather

Question 31

How did mass production affect roads in the USA?

Answer 31

More surfaced roads were built, around 400,000 km built in the 1920s. Therefore road travel became quicker and easier. People travelled more and spent money

Question 32

Reasons for the increase in demand for new goods

Answer 32

Mass production made goods cheaper
Wages were rising – The average wage rate is 8% in the 1920s
Advertising became big business in the 1920s and created them on by convincing people that they wanted these goods
Hire purchase – paying for goods in regular instalments

Question 33

The boom cycle?

Answer 33

More workers employed lead to more wages spent lead to more good sport lead to more goods made

Question 34

The stock market boom gave American citizens confidence, so ordinary people…

Answer 34

Ordinary people, not just wealthy people and banks, bought and sold shares

Question 35

How did the stock market boom affect share prices

Answer 35

Share prices went up because new companies were making big profits. More and more people bought shares, not for the yearly dividend, but to resell them at a profit. Demand for shares kept rising so the prices continued to go up.

Question 36

What is buying on the margin

Answer 36

People were so confident that the prices of shares would continue to increase that they borrowed money to pay for shares. They were sure that they would be able to sell the share at a profit and repay the loan. Banks even began to use people’s savings to buy shares.

Question 37

Which industries were at full production during the war, but couldn’t benefit from mass production?

Answer 37

Coal mining, ship building and railways

Question 38

How was coal replaced after the war?

Answer 38

electricity replaced coal as it was cheaper for heating and electricity

Question 39

How was railways replaced after the war?

Answer 39

Car meant that railways lost custom

Question 40

How were ships replaced after the war?

Answer 40

Demand for ships fell after the war

Question 41

How did farmer start overproducing?

Answer 41

During the war farmers bought more land and machinery, often talking out mortgages to do so. They were producing crops for the European market, but after the war European farm production slowly recovered so they didn’t need as much food from the USA. Therefore farmers were overproducing so their costs were high but prices were low

Question 42

price of wheat per bushel 1919, 1921, 1923

Answer 42

1919 - $2.15
1921 - $1.01
1923 - $0.92

Question 43

How did the prohibition in 1920 effect demand

Answer 43

The prohibition reduced demand for grapes and barley

Question 44

Why was demand for wool and cotton reduced

Answer 44

Many clothes were beginning to be made from new, synthetic fabrics such as rayon

Question 45

What was a sharecropper

Answer 45

A farm worker paid not in wages, but in a share of the harvest

Question 46

Average wage per week for a farm worker in 1919 and 1930

Answer 46

1919 - $13.5

1930 - $7.5

Question 47

Why did the 1920s boom grow rapidly

Answer 47

People bought more goods
People spent more money on leisure because they had more free time
After ww1 working hours dropped, most wages rose and prices rose
New industries produced new goods for people to buy

Question 48

How did adverts pressure men into buying products?

Answer 48

Men were pressured into buying products as it was suggested that if they didn’t they would be depriving their family ‘keeping up with the neighbours’

Question 49

How many families owned a radio by 1925

Answer 49

2,700,000

Question 50

Underlying problems of the boom?

Answer 50

1. Unemployment
2. Big businesses in control
3. New president
4. Overproduction
5. Borrowing

Question 51

Problems of the boom - unemployment? (4)

Answer 51

In 1924 600,000 farmers lost their farms.
At the start of 1929, business was still been in, but many people move from farms to cities to find work but they couldn’t find any.
There were not regulations on businesses because of laissez faire, so big businesses were able to put smaller ones out of business. They then cut their own workforce by more efficient use of mass production techniques because they could produce goods quickly without having to employ so many people
Between 1926 and 1928 unemployment rose from 880,00 to 2,080,000

Question 52

Problems of the boom - Big businesses in control (2)

Answer 52

Trade union membership sell from 5.3 million to 3.6 million in the 1920s as they were virtually driven out of business before the war. They had agreed not to strike during World War I, but after the war they strike for better conditions. They failed because “Yellow dog” contracts, in which workers agreed not to strike, were recognised by the courts so people feared being fired for protesting
Some businesses refused to employ trade union members so membership fell

Question 53

Problems of the boom – new president

Answer 53

Herbert Hoover, a republican, became president in March 1929. He is known for doing too little too late because he believed in laissez faire and so put off government interference

Question 54

Problems of the boom - Overproduction (2)

Answer 54

Demand for goods began to fall as unemployment rose and wages fell businesses were slow to realise so they continue to produce and want to goods. The warehouses filled with good that they found increasingly difficult to sell
Farmers were also overproducing and the price of wheat had been falling since 1919. The price of the goods such as sugar was also declining and the tariff system made American good unattractive to overseas buyers. Cotton and wool sales were impacted by synthetic fibres so farmers and businesses had so much stock that they were forced to sell it cheaply

Question 55

Problems of the boom - borrowing (5)

Answer 55

Banks had lent money to businesses, ordinary people and European countries.
During the boom everyone was able to make regular payments, but now all these groups were facing financial issues and wanted to borrow more money
Banks desperately needed their loans repaid because they had bought shred using their investors’ money, relying on the stock market boom to provide returns
Despite being warned that the boom wouldn’t continue, banks continued to fund buying on the margin and people continued to believe that they would sell their shares at w profit to repay the loan
The boom had encouraged overconfidence

Question 56

What year did America join World War I and what effect did this have on them

Answer 56

America joined the war in 1917, so they had no war damage