depth study Flashcards

1
Q

how many people left the Old World for America

A

between 1850 and 1914, over 40 million people left the old world for america

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2
Q

what did immigrants have to pass through when coming to america

A

upon arrival at ellis island immigrants had to pass through the immigration processing centre and there was no guarantee that they would get through

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3
Q

what decided whether they were admitted or not

A

immigrants had to face a series of tests that would decide whether they were admitted or not.

they feared the medical tests the most, they were checked by doctors and marked with an ‘X’ for mental illness and an ‘H’ for heart. Then they were checked for contagious diseases such as trachoma- the doctors used button hooks to lift up the patients’ eyelids to check for this blinding disease.

however the process did not end there, they were further questioned about occupation, whether they could read or write, and their financial situation

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4
Q

the problem with immigrants’ names

A

their names could often not be understood, many took on a new name upon entering america. a confused german jew when asked his name said ‘ich vergesse’ (i forgot), this instantly became ‘ferguson’.

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5
Q

reasons immigrants were detained

A
  • illness
  • young women who were alone
  • immigrants without money
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6
Q

how many people were not allowed into america in 1911

A

around 2% of people were not allowed in

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7
Q

the average age in the USA in 1910

A

immigrants came from all over the world, but particularly from europe. most were young- the average age in america in 1910 was 24.

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8
Q

pull factors

A
  • space (by 1900 new york was the largest city in the world and still growing)
  • natural resources (america had massive natural resources- oil, timber, minerals and land was cheap)
  • economic opportunity (great opportunities for new businesses)
  • wages (higher in america vs europe)
  • the land of the free (freedom of religion, speech and of the press)
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9
Q

push factors

A
  • overcrowding (increase in population meant areas were overcrowded)
  • lack of opportunity (difficult for a poor or uneducated person to improve their situation)
  • unemployment (workers being replaced with new machinery + economic depression)
  • persecution (people persecuted for their political views or religion, e.g jews in russia)
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10
Q

why USA emerged as a global superpower by 1919

A

the USA joined the war in 1917 (only for 19 months), they came out of the war as the world’s leading economy.

during the war they were in a one-way trade with europe, money poured into the USA for food, raw materials, and munitions.

during the war they had taken over european overseas markets and many american industries had become more successful than their european competitors. e.g US replaced Germany as the world’s leading producers of fertilisers, dyes and etc

war had led to advances in technology e.g mechanisation and new materials like plastics.

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11
Q

consequences of WW1 on USA

A
  • social and economic problems: strikes and unemployment, fears of radicalism, race riots
  • isolationism: american people not wanting to be involved in european affairs (not joining league)
  • immigration problems: many immigrants coming to US, americans angry, literacy test
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12
Q

how the american economy boomed

A
  • new industries: cars, chemicals, electricity and electrical products. enormous increase in cars created demand for steel, glass and rubber. electricity use increased largely after the war.

by 1920 most homes in the cities had electricity and 70% of all americans had electric lights

  • transport: saw massive improvements, by 1930 the miles of paved road had doubled (thanks to mass production of cars).
    number of trucks tripled to 3.5 million in 1929.
    aircraft for civil flights made their first appearance in the 1920’s, making 162,000 flights by 1929.
  • construction: industrial growth created more demand for factories, even more people were employed in building roads for the increasing amount of cars. age of the skyscraper.
  • advertising: mass-marketing the mass-produced goods
  • shopping: wider choice of materials and styles- clothing sales went up 427% in the 1920’s.
    sears, roebuck and co. of chicago: in 1928 nearly 1/3 of americans bought goods from the company giving it sales worth 347 million dollars that year
  • entertainment
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13
Q

entertainment in the 1920’s

A

cinema: young americans visited the cinema 2-3 times a week, 75% of americans attended the cinema at least once a week, clara bow ‘it-girl’ going against the normal standard for women

flappers: liberated urban women, short skirts, bobbed-hair, makeup, ‘powdered knees’, bright clothes, represented extreme changes of women in society

sport: in 1924, 67,000 people watched the illinois versus michigan football match at the memorial stadium, people who couldn’t attend tuned in from their radios

radio: by 1930, 40% of all homes in the USA had a radio set, could listen to music and sporting events

jazz: called the ‘jazz age’ because black music e.g blues dominated all music at this time. if arrived with the great black migration to northern cities

clubs and dancing: more sexual, from slow dances to quick-paced like the charleston

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14
Q

women in the 1920’s

A
  • increasing number of women were entering work
  • people were employing women because they could pay them lower wages than men
  • by the end of the decade over 10 million women were in paid employment- 25% increase from 1920
  • social habits were changing: women becoming more liberated, earned the right to vote in 1920, flappers were an example of extreme changes, women were expressing themselves through clothes and style
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15
Q

causes of the economic boom

A
  • resources
  • republican policies
  • impact of WW1
  • technological change
  • mass-production
  • mass-marketing
  • confidence
  • credit

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16
Q

republican policies

A
  • lowered taxes on income and company profits, giving the wealthy more money to spend
  • protective tariffs on imported goods
  • laissez-faire: ‘leave things be”
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17
Q

henry ford’s significance to the boom

A
  • mass production: invented the assembly line.
    by 1920 a car was turned out every 10 seconds
  • car for the ordinary man: affordable, family size
  • workers were bored because work was uninteresting so he doubled their daily wages to $5
  • impact of the model T: it encouraged the building of roads and the development of suburbs. it stimulated the growth of other industries e.g 90% of petrol, 80% of rubber, and 75% of plate glass were consumed by cars in the mid 1920’s when one in every 2 cars was a model T.
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18
Q

which groups suffered during the boom

A
  • farmers
  • blacks
  • new immigrants
  • old industries
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19
Q

farmers

A

30 million people earned a living through farming and half of americans lived in rural areas, new machinery e.g combine harvesters which made farming the most efficient in the world, it was producing far more than americans needed. during the war the surplus had been sold to europe. however after the war, europe recovered and was producing enough to meet their needs. USA was also competing with canada.

the price of grain collapsed and brought ruin to many small farmers. over 3 million farming families were earning less than $1000 a year. as their income dropped farmers found it difficult to pay their mortgage payments. between 1920 and 1930 the number of farms declined for the first time in american history

not all farmers suffered, big mechanised farms did well

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20
Q

blacks during the boom

A

the biggest concentration of black people was in the southern states of the usa where they were either labourers or sharecroppers.

3/4 of a million black farm workers lost their jobs during the 1920’s.

60% of black women in Milwaukee worked as low-paid domestic servants in white households.

car factories only hired blacks in small numbers; most operated on an all-white policy

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21
Q

new immigrants during the boom

A

usually uneducated so they took whatever job they could get

construction workers’ wages only rose 4% in the 1920’s and a large number of new immigrants worked in that industry

unemployment rate amongst new immigrants remained high throughout the decade

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22
Q

old industries during the boom

A

older industries were undergoing modernisation

workers in raw material industries e.g coal, steel, cotton were suffering. there was overproduction which meant prices dropped and wages fell

in 1922 600,000 miners went on strike for 4 months for better conditions but to no avail

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23
Q

the red scare

A
  • russian revolution in 1917 heightened paranoia because more immigrants coming to america after WW1
  • americans feared that immigrants were bringing in ideas of communism
  • 16 bombs were found in a new york post office to be delivered to enemies of the revolution.
  • an italian anarchist blew himself up on the steps of the attorney-general’s (mitchell palmer) home
  • palmer raids: between 4000-6000 suspected communists were arrested
  • some labour unions began to align themselves with international radical groups. at the end of 1920 there were strikes involving over 4 million workers
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24
Q

sacco and vanzetti

A
  • in April 1920, a robbery took place at a shoe factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts - the robbers stole $15,000 USD and shot dead two employees.
  • 16 eyewitnesses identified them as the culprits, both men were armed with the same caliber guns as used in the crime at the time of arrest, both men ‘acted guilty’ while being arrested and lied to police, Vanzetti had a previous conviction for armed robbery in 1919
  • The men’s defence was that 107 people were able to confirm that both men were elsewhere at the time of the robbery, several other men confessed to the crime, the witnesses nearly all disagreed over what the men were wearing, the men also spoke poor english and got confused under police interrogation, explaining their behaviour.
  • The judge, after the trial, said “did you see what I did to those anarchist bastards?” and also described them as ‘dagos’ and ‘wops’, two derogatory terms.
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25
Q

american immigration policy changing

A
  • 1921 immigration quota act: figure set for immigrants allowed in was 3%
  • 1924 national origins act: quota reduced to 2%
  • 1929 only 150,000 immigrants per year
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26
Q

klu klux klan

A
  • aim was to terrorize black people
  • by 1920 ir had over 100,000 members; by 1925 ir had around 5 million members
  • believed that WASPs were the best americans
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27
Q

black experience in the 1920’s

A
  • jim crow laws: segregation of blacks in schools, parks, hospitals, swimming pools, libraries, bathrooms, and other public spaces
  • discrimination and ill treatment
  • thousands of blacks moved to the cities of the north hoping for a better life from 1910 to 1920
  • the black renaissance: black culture and pride flourished in the cities, made whites aware of the black experience
  • black theatre attracted big audiences: especially black music- jazz, blues, soul
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28
Q

the monkey trial

A
  • A new law was passed in six states, including Tennessee, prohibiting the teaching of Charles Darwin’s evolution ideas in schools because those ideas contradicted the story of the Creation in the Bible.
  • high school teacher John T. Scopes ignored the new law and taught his pupils Darwin’s ideas, he was taken to court.
  • he was fined $100
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29
Q

when was prohibition introduced

A

january 1920, 18th amendment

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30
Q

what was the prohibition

A
  • banned the sale, production and transportation of alcohol until the repeal of the law in 1933
  • the law was ignored, broken and irregularly enforced
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31
Q

why was there a prohibition

A
  • ‘dries’ vs ‘wets’
  • growth of temperance (not drinking alcohol) movement which suggested that alcohol was linked to cholera, murder, epilepsy, many other illnesses
  • mothers of families were upset because their husbands were alcoholics, spending their money on drinks instead of providing for their families
  • big american brewers were of german descent, dries used this as propaganda to their advantage, suggested that refusing alcohol was a patriotic duty
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32
Q

why prohibition didn’t work

A
  • speakeasies (illegal bars), bootleggers (people who imported illegal alcohol from abroad), racketeering (payments to the mafia for ‘protection’ against the mafia themselves)
  • in 1919 there had been 15,000 bars in NY, by 1920 there were 32,000 (more than double)
  • gangs were making 2 billion dollars a year, organized crime e.g al capone and bugs moran
  • police officers employed as prohibition agents (corrupt, took bribes, outnumbered)
  • illegal liquor: moonshine, ‘bathtub’ gin
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33
Q

why prohibition ended

A
  • it was seen as the cause of a violent crime wave in the USA
  • more americans were turning against it
  • legalising it could help create jobs during the depression
  • ended on december 5 1933
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34
Q

when was the wall street crash

A

october 24th 1929, 13 million shares sold (5 times the normal amount)

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35
Q

causes of the wall street crash

A
  • too much speculation
  • overproduction
  • panic
  • overconfidence
  • foreign tariffs
36
Q

hoover’s phrases about prosperity

A
  • prosperity is just around the corner
  • a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage
37
Q

% reduction of industrial output

A

40% reduction in industrial output

38
Q

% decrease in workers’ wages

A

60% decrease in workers’ wages

39
Q

how many banks went bankrupt in 1929

A

659 banks went bankrupt in 1929

40
Q

what portion of new yorkers lost everything

A

1/3 of new yorkers (400,000 people) lost everything

41
Q

how many cars were bought in 1927

A

4.5 million

42
Q

underconsumption example

A

4.5 million cars were bought by americans in 1927 but by 1930 factory owners could not sell 1/4 of that

43
Q

economic consequences of the crash examples

A
  • vanderbilt family los 40 million dollars
  • rockefeller lost 80% of his wealth
  • winston churchill lost 500,000 dollars
44
Q

unemployment statistics

A
  • 14 million unemployed people in 1933 and 5000 of the banks had gone bankrupt
  • in cleveland (steel-making city) 50% of workers were unemployed
  • in toledo (car-making town) 80% of workers were unemployed
45
Q

okies

A
  • agricultural workers coming from oklahoma to california 1930-1935
  • travelled usually in box-cars or by train
46
Q

hoovervilles

A
  • shanty-towns of shacks, tents and packing cases
  • unsanitary
  • nicknamed after hoover
47
Q

dust bowl

A
  • between 1930 and 1936 the south and midwest suffered a serious drought
  • the land had been overfarmed and overworked, it was already losing its fertility
  • the top soil turned to dust and the wind whipped the dust into storms which smothered everything in sight
  • by 1936 over 20 million hectares of land in kansas, oklahoma, texas etc had become like a dessert so farmers migrated
48
Q

1930’s were a golden age for hollywood

A
  • throughout the depression, 60 to 100 million people went to the cinema every week (half the population of the USA)
  • ticket costed 25 cents (less than a loaf of bread) but it bought you two hours of luxury
  • some people went 2-3 times a week
49
Q

effects of the great depression

A
  • unemployment skyrocketed
  • economy was in a downturn
  • loss of confidence in banks
  • reduction in spending
  • production fell
  • homelessness
  • starvation
50
Q

how much was car production cut by

A

car production was cut by 80%

51
Q

rugged individualism

A

working hard to achieve something not with the help of government intervention

52
Q

what did hoover do during the depression

A
  • gave 300 million dollars to an emergency relief fund- however only 30 million actually reached the people
  • spent 4000 million dollars on the hoover dam- however it remained incomplete because there was not enough money to finish it
  • gave 1500 million dollars to reconstruction finance company- not much of it reached the people, rumours of political bias
  • hawley-smoot tariff act: raised tax on imported goods by 50%- foreign countries retaliated by taxing american goods so trade fell even further
  • blocked garner wagner relief act which would have provided 1.2 billion for jobs because he believed in rugged individualism
  • ‘no one is actually starving’ he said in 1931 when 234 people were admitted to hospital for malnutrition
  • the veteran act (bonus marchers)
53
Q

the bonus marchers

A
  • group of WW1 veterans had been promised a ‘bonus’ that would be paid to them in 1945
  • they were poor and in desperate need of money so over 15,000 veterans and their families set up camp and temporary homes in Washington
  • hoover refused to give them the money and they were accused of being communists and terrorists
  • finally hoover decided to use force on them and they were dispersed by armed troops, tanks and tear gas. their tents were set on fire, 54 veterans were injured and 135 were arrested
  • made hoover very unpopular
54
Q

roosevelt winning the election

A

he won 42 out of 48 states

55
Q

what were the 3 r’s

A

relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery for the economy, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat of the depression

56
Q

why roosevelt won the election

A
  • he promised a new deal, the 3 r’s
  • he was a family man, good communication, brought up in politics
  • hoover did too little too late
  • hoover had bad communication and outdated strategies e.g rugged individualism and laissez-faire
57
Q

roosevelt’s aims with the new deal

A
  • stabilizing the banks
  • reducing unemployment
  • ending prohibition
  • help farmers
  • help industries
58
Q

what did roosevelt promise? his phrase

A

’ action and action now’

59
Q

what was roosevelt granted by the congress

A

emergency powers for the first 100 days (8th march to 16th june) which enabled him to make quick and immediate changes to try and fix the depression, he passed 13 new laws during this time

60
Q

roosevelts 100 days

A
  • fireside chats
  • emergency banking act
  • beer act
  • FERA
  • CCC
  • AAA
  • FCA
  • PWA
  • NRA
  • TVA
  • CWA
  • HOLC
61
Q

beer act

A
  • legal to sell alcohol again
  • government could make many by taxing it
62
Q

emergency banking act (EBA)

A
  • since 1930 over 5000 banks had been forced to close, banking system was collapsing
  • roosevelt immediately closed all banks for a ‘four-day holiday’ only trustworthy banks were reopened
  • customers redeposited 1 billion dollars back into banks
63
Q

farm credit administration (FCA)

A
  • made loans to 1/5 of farmers so they would not lose their farms
64
Q

Agricultural adjustment agency (AAA)

A
  • set quotas to reduce farm production in order to gradually force prices upwards
  • helped farmers to modernise and use farming methods that would conserve and protect the soil
65
Q

civilian conservation corps (CCC)

A
  • aimed at unemployed young men
  • environmental projects in national parks
  • money earned usually went back to their families
  • around 2.5 million young men were helped in this scheme
66
Q

civilian works administration (CWA)

A
  • short-term scheme to give as many people jobs as possible (4 million over the winter of 1933-34)
  • work varied from building roads to sweeping up leaves in parks
  • simply gave people work to do
67
Q

public works administration (PWA)

A
  • to create public works on real and lasting value
  • 7 billion dollars was spent on employing skilled men to build dams, bridges, sewage systems and houses
  • between 1933-1939 the PWA built 70% of America’s schools and 35% of america’s hospitals
68
Q

federal emergency relief administration (FERA)

A
  • set about meeting the urgent needs of the poor
  • 500 million dollars was spent on soup kitchens, blankets, employment schemes and nursery schools
69
Q

home owners loan corporation (HOLC)

A
  • loaned money to over a million people to prevent them from losing their homes
70
Q

national recovery administration (NRA)

A
  • increase workers wages
  • increase prices of factory goods
  • give workers better working conditions and shorter hours
  • over 2 million workers joined the scheme
71
Q

tennessee valley authority (TVA)

A
  • organised the building of 33 dams to control the tennessee river
  • wanted to improve the quality of the soil so that it could be farmed again
  • power stations were built at the dams to provide cheap electricity for farmers and domestic consumers
  • one of the most impressive schemes of the new deal
  • thousands of jobs created
72
Q

second new deal

A
  • wagner act
  • works progress administration (WPA)
  • social security act
  • resettlement administration
  • farm security administration
73
Q

wagner act

A
  • forced all employers to allow trade unions to operate in their companies and to let them negotiate with employers for better pay and condition
  • made it illegal for employers to sack workers for being in a union
74
Q

social security act

A
  • provided state pensions for the elderly and for widows
  • provided help for sick and disabled
  • set up a scheme for unemployment insurance
75
Q

works progress administration (WPA)

A
  • aimed to create jobs
  • gave work to about 2 million people per year
  • building roads, bridges, schools, tunnel sewers
  • gave work to artists, writers, musicians, actors
  • pigeon chasing?
76
Q

resettlement administration (RA)

A
  • helped smallholders and tenant farmers who had not been helped by the AAA
77
Q

farm security administration (FSA)

A
  • gave special loans to small farmers to help them buy their land
  • built camps to provide decent living conditions and work for migrant workers
78
Q

election of 1936

A

roosevelt won the biggest ever landslide victory in 1936, won all but 2 states

79
Q

opposition to the new deal

A
  • the rich: having to pay higher taxes to pay for the work of the new deal agencies, they were bitter
  • businesses: did not like that workers were given more rights, did not like the government’s interference in their affairs
  • republicans: compared him to a dictator and a communist, said he was making the government too powerful, thought he was spending too much money
  • supreme court: thought he was interfering were it was not the federal government’s business and it was the state government’s
  • huey ‘kingfish’ long: share the wealth scheme, all personal fortunes over 5 million should be confiscated and distributed, 5 thousand dollars to each american family for food, cars, and radios
  • doctor francis townsend: everyone over the age of 60 to get a pension of 200 dollars a month, lost support due to anti-semitic comments
80
Q

the supreme court and the new deal

A
  • attacked the NRA and the AAA for being unconstitutional said that regulations about agriculture could only be made by individual states and a president could not make laws to control businesses
  • asked the congress to give him the power to appoint six new judges who he knew would be sympathetic to the new deal, ‘pack the court’
  • both republicans and democrats were alarmed by this, thought this would give him too much power
  • scared the judges and some even retired voluntarily soon afterwards
81
Q

unemployment rates in 1936

A

unemployment rates halved in 1936

82
Q

how successful was the new deal

A
  • successful in reducing unemployment, in 1933 rates peaked at 25%, in 1937 they were below 15%. 2.5 million young men found work through CCC. however it did not solve unemployment, there was always 1 in 10 people who were unemployed
  • stabilized banks: in 1933 over 4000 banks had failed, by 1934 this had dropped to almost zero
  • satisfied workers: as of 1934 there were 20 million days lost to strikes, this was reduced by over half to 9 million by 1938
83
Q

the new deal for women

A
  • only 10,000 women were employed by the CCC out of the 2.5 million involved
  • women were being paid less than men
  • social security act required state governments to provide money for women and their children, number of states tried to avoid this
  • women given positions of responsibility in running the agencies e.g mary macleod bethume, a black woman who became head of the national youth administration and helped thousands of young blacks
84
Q

new deal for black people

A
  • did not end discrimination
  • CCC campsites were often segregated
  • roosevelt didn’t want to lose support in the south (racist states) so he didn’t want to do much about it: failed to put through an anti-lynching law
  • 200,000 black americans gained jobs in the CCC
  • 1940 census showed that only one in 20 blacks had a desk job compared with one in 3 whites
85
Q

new deal for the native american indians

A
  • helped increase the amount of land they owned went from 47 million acres to 50 million acres
  • the indian reorganisation act of 1934 provided money to buy reservation land so that it could be owned by tribes rather than individuals and allowed them to set up their own courts of law