history mocks paper 2+4:

Question 1

what was containment?

Answer 1

-by the end of the 1940s, the US government had decided on what its strategy and approach would be towards communism after the war
-Truman settled on idea of containment, the basic idea being that the US would seek to stop the spread of communism wherever it sought to expand across the global, this could mean anything up to and including military action
-HOWEVER, must be contrasted with rollback, which was the active attempt to actually remove communism from countries, up to and including eastern Europe and the USSR itself

Question 2

containment and the domino theory:

Answer 2

-working hand in hand with containment, was the ‘domino theory’, which stated that if one country in a region fell to communism, the countries around it would follow a domino effect
-this became a source of great paranoia in Asia in particular due to the fall of China to communism in 1949, Asia would therefore be one of the earliest ‘containment’ battlegrounds for the US

Question 3

case study Korea 1:

Answer 3

-Korea was the first real Cold War conflict, the Berlin Blockade was the first confrontation, but the Cold War became a ‘hot war’ in Korea
-often referred to as the ‘forgotten war’, received little public attention long-term as Second World War preceded and was bigger, and Vietnam war came shortly after and caused far more social upheaval in America
-a huge conflict despite its lack of attention, 2-3 million dead civilians, over a million military casualties and involved 100s of thousands of US soldiers

Question 4

background to conflict-end of second world war:

Answer 4

-Korea had been ruled by Japan until the end of the Second World War, at the end of the war, Korea was temporarily divided (not unlike Germany) into two occupation zones:
-Soviet occupied North
-American occupied South
-border at the ‘38th parallel’
-as relations between the two worsened however, unification seemed less likely
-in 1948, separate independent states were set up in the North and South

Question 5

conflict between north and south Korea:

Answer 5

-the two governments set up despised each other:
-South Korea (Republic of Korea) was setup under Syngman Rhee, was not very democratic but was staunchly anti-communist, enough to get US support
-North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic) was set up under Kim II-Sung who was a soviet-trained and backed communist running a I-party state
-both leaders believed that they had the right to rule all of Korea and wanted the peninsula reunified
-given their hostility however there was no chance at all of the two countries peacefully unifying

Question 6

why did war break out?

Answer 6

-in the summer of 1950, Kim II-Sung made his move and decided to invade the South, he did this in order to unify Korea and eliminate, what he considered to be, the illegitimate government in the South
-whilst this seems a rash move in hindsight, at the time he had good reason to believe he would be successful:
-he was backed by both Stalin and Mao (USSR and China) and had been heavily armed by the Soviets with tanks, artillery, planes-was stronger than the south
-the proximity of Korea to China and the soviets having the bomb made it seem unlikely the US would act in response
-additionally Korea was far away and likely would not be a defense priority for the US

Question 7

how did the US respond?

Answer 7

-contrary to Kim’s beliefs, the US were determined to get involved and stop the South being taken over, this was because:
-they were now committed to the policy of containment, communism was also seen as always directed by Moscow, so this was not a faraway conflict but a soviet plan
-linked to the domino theory, the total fall of Korea would lead to fall of other US-backed nations, e.g: new Chinese gov in Taiwan and Japan (big US trade partner post-war)
-when the US became involved, however, it was not on their own, but instead an official intervention/action by the newly formed United Nations (UN/UNO)

Question 8

how did the UNO become involved?

Answer 8

-Truman would have intervened in Korea no matter what happened, but to make things look better he wanted the UNO to get involved officially instead
-Truman immediately took the matter to the UN security council and began applying pressure to pass a resolution to call for military action
-therefore even though it was clearly a US-led operation, UN voted in favour, which meant the anti-communist forces were a coalition of 15 countries
-normally this should not have been possible as the USSR had a veto power on the council
-however, USSR had been boycotting UN meetings over previous issue of whether to allow communist China to join, therefore were not available at meetings to use veto power

Question 9

events of the Korean war:

Answer 9

-June to Sep 1950: northern communists invade south and quickly overwhelm them and occupied most of the peninsula
-Sep to Oct 1950: UN forces land in two locations, Pusan and Inchon and communists driven back beyond 38th parallel within weeks
-Oct 1950: despite initial containment objective being achieved, UN forces (directed by Truman and General MacArthur) pushed on into the north

Question 10

events of the Korean war: 2.0

Answer 10

-Nov 1950: feeling threatened by the US push, the chinese government intervened and sent 200,000 soldiers to cross the border UN forces were pushed back into south Korea, the chinese army was well equipped and more accustomed to the fighting conditions
-Truman accepted that containment and protection of south Korea was good enough and ignored advice by MacArthur to invade China
-June 1951: stalemate around 38th parallel, led to peace talks and eventual armistice in 2 years later

Question 11

outcomes of the war:

Answer 11

success for the US:
1. achieved initial short-term aim of protecting south from communism and halting invasion-successful ‘containment’
2. showed the world US was willing to confront communism by force
failures of the US:
1. US failed to achieve later expanded aims of re-uniting Korea under democratic, non-communist rule, however chinese intervention foiled this and future threat of north would remain
2. conflict exposed major tensions between US leaders of foreign policy and the sacked MacArthur received a heroic welcome when he returned

Question 12

On what factors was the economic boom based? (8)

Answer 12

-Resources
-Impact of the First World War
-Technological change
-Mass-production
-Mass-marketing
-Credit
-Confidence
-The policies of the Republican Presidents

Question 13

resources:

Answer 13

-US had a great store of natural resources: wood, iron, coal, minerals, oil and land
-helped America to become a great industrial power by the beginning of the 20th century + provided a sound basis for further expansion in the 1920s

Question 14

Impact of First World War:

Answer 14

-US had come out the war well, it had supplied Europe with many goods during the war + had taken over European overseas markets
-in some areas, US industry was now the world leader, e.g: chemicals
-there was hastened technological change which US industry seized on

Question 15

Technological change:

Answer 15

-plastics like Bakelite were developed effectively for the first time and were used in new household products
-automatic swicthboards, glass tubing, conveyor belts, and concrete mixers
-helped modernise existing industries + develop new ones
-the most important change was the introducing of electricity
-electricity provided a cheaper, more efficient source of power for factories + led the production of new consumer goods such as refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and radios

Question 16

Mass-production:

Answer 16

-new technique meant that goods could be produced much more cheaply on a large scale
-Henry Ford had developed mass-production in the car industry by introducing an assembly line before the war
-he made cars so cheaply that thousands of ordinary Americans could afford them
-in the 1920s, his ideas were applied throughout industry, particularly to the new consumers products

Question 17

Mass-marketing:

Answer 17

-mass-produced good have to be sold to a mass market: if enough people do not know about or buy the goods, the system will collapse
-so companies spent huge amounts on advertising
-this new industry developed sophisticated techniques to persuade people to buy
-the expansion of the mail-order companies gave consumers in the countryside access to the wide range of goods on offer

Question 18

Credit:

Answer 18

-the growth of credit made it much easier for people to buy goods even though they did not have enough cash to pay for them on the spot
-firms arranged for customers to pay by instalment or hire purchase

Question 19

Confidence:

Answer 19

-confidence amongst americans was sky high
-this meant confidence to buy goods, invest in companies, and to try out new ideas
-confidence is a vital ingredient in any economic boom

Question 20

The republican policies:

Answer 20

republican pro-business policies encouraged the boom:
-they lowered taxes on income and company profts, giving the wealthy more money to invest in American industry and buildings, and people more money to spend on american goods
-they put tariffs on imported goods, this made imports more expensive compared with american-made goods and thereby helped american producers
-laissez faire -> they didn’t interfere in buisness or put any controls on financial institutions
-rugged individualism, with Republicans resisting the call to intervene too much in society’s problems.

Question 21

New industries:

Answer 21

-these were industries that could use electricity and often produced the new consumer goods such as radios, cookers…
-the assembly line was adapted for use in all of the new industries and reduced costs
-most products were labour-saving devices which made life easier, they sold very well

Question 22

Declining industries:

Answer 22

-cotton:polyester taking over
-coal: oil, gas and electricity taking over, mines closing, 600 000 miners on strike (1922)
-overproduction
-prices dropped, wages fell

Question 23

Why did agriculture not share in the prosperity?

Answer 23

-Farming did not do well in the 1920s. US agriculture had expanded during the First World War to send food to Europe, but afterwards countries returned to growing their own again
-Foreigners could not buy US food because the high tariffs meant that they did not have dollars to spend
-There was also competition from Canada. Prohibition hit the production of barley
-US farmers were over-producing food, and prices got very low

Question 24

Did all Americans benefit from the boom?

Answer 24

YES
W hite
A nglo
S axon
P rotestants
NO
- Black Americans + Farmers + Industry workers + complications in the South

Question 25

Black Americans:

Answer 25

-3/4 of US black population lived in the South, where they sufferes from racism in all its forms
-although they had been freed from slavery, they were still desperately poor, especially the sharecroppers, who were exploited by white landowners
-many lived in wodden shacks with no amenities. They had seperate cinemas, restaurants, buses and parks
-During the first ww, many black americans had moved to the industrial cities of the north to find work, but when the war ended, they faced hostility + even race riots

Question 26

Industrial workers:

Answer 26

-although profits rose by 80%, wages rose only by 8%. Recent immigrants got the worst jobs: casual work, on low pay
-wages were low in old indutries facing world competition, like coal and textiles. Mechanisation often replaced workers, especially skilled workers
-there were up to 2,000,000 unemployed throughout the 1920s
-trade unions were able to make little impact, henry Ford would not allow trade unions in his car factories which meant that workers could do little to improve their conditions

Question 27

The South:

Answer 27

-the worst conditions for all, Black Americans, white farm labourers, were in the South, where the main industry was farming
-few farms had electricity or running water and wages were very low
-most farms in the south were dependent upon one crop, such as cotton. In the 1920s the price of cotton crashed, as man-made fibres became available
-also suffered more and more dust storms, which blew away the topsoil and destroyed agricultural land
-in some parts, farm labours were only earning 1/3 of the wage of industrial workers

Question 28

What were the roaring twenties?

Answer 28

-as prices fell, people had more money to spend on enjoying themselves
-for many, the ‘Roaring Twenties’ were a time of fun, parties, prosperity, jazz music and frantic dancing, also called the ‘The Jazz Age’
-new dances and music were all the rage, the ‘Charleston’, the ‘Black Bottom’ and jazz
-jazz evolved black music and became the only way Black Americans could be successful in America
-jazz clubs were especially popular during prohibition, but the biggest craze of all was the cinema

Question 29

the movies:

Answer 29

-the 1920s, was the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’, movie companies were founded and the first real fim-stars emerged
-nearly 100,000,000 tickets were sold for movies each week, this was a real sign of prosperity
-it could open up whole new worlds for just a few cents, in 1927 the first talkie was produced, ‘The Jazz Singer’
-there were concerns that the cinema might lead to immorality, and in love scenes in a bedroom, actors always had to keep one foot on the floor
-rules were brought in to cover what could and could not be shown on screen

Question 30

sport:

Answer 30

-baseball, boxing and golf all became very popular and the first great sporting heroes emerged
-this was yet another sign of the new prosperity that many Americans were enjoying; they could afford to attend sporting events regularly

Question 31

radio:

Answer 31

-during the 1920s, sales of radios rose rapidly. At the same time sales of gramophone records fell
-new radio stations opened almost every week, many of them playing music almost non-stop
-radio was widely used for advertising and helped to fuel the economic boom of the 1920s. The US gov. made no attempt to regulate radio advertising

Question 32

Why was prohibition introduced and then repealed?

Answer 32

-it was introduced by the Volstead Act, which became the 18th amendment to the US Constitution
-this banned the production, transporting and sale of acoholic liquor. It did not however, ban its consumption
-many small town and women’s organisations campaigned against alcohol, politiciand agreed with their votes
-the blamed acohol for breaking up families, causing unemployment, ill health and suffering of women and children
-brewing in the USA was traditionally run by German immigrants, campaigners claimed that it would be patriotic to close down their industry

Question 33

What effects did prohibition have?

Answer 33

-speakeasies: illegal bars, moonshine or hooch: illegally made alcohol, bootlegging: smuggling alcohol into the US from Canada
-it made ordinary people into criminals, pocile were reluctant to enforce the law, and were open to bribes
-the gangsters stepped in to supply the demand. The made a fortune- Al Capone is supposed to have made $100,000 a year
-they also fought to control the business + encouraged an atmosphere of lawlessness and direspect for the law
-led to a big increase in prostitution, drugs, protection rackets and gambling

Question 34

Why was prohibition repealed in 1933?

Answer 34

-it was clearly not working, some states repealed their own legislation which meant that the local police would take no action
-the depression meant that there was less money to spare to catch smugglers, and other important priorities
-Roosevelt, who became president in 1933, personally dissaproved of prohibition

Question 35

How far did the roles of women change during the 1920s?

Answer 35

-some young, well-off women, much to the disgust of older generations became ‘flappers’
-dressed flamboyantly and behaved extravagantly and were encourgaed by the Jazz Age
-were now accepeted as fully qualified doctors and lawyers, but did not enjoy quality in wages and working conditions
-had campaigned successfully for the vote in several states where they outnumbered men
-in 1920, 47.3% of college students were women

Question 36

why were the achievement of women limited?

Answer 36

-medical school allocated only 5% of their places to women and the number of women doctors declined over the period
-women were not generally interested in politics
-american women had different views of their role in society. There was still a strong belieg that their domestic role was of the greatest importance
-women who had worked during the first world war were content to return to the domestic scene after 1918

Question 37

How widespread was racial intolerence in US society:

Answer 37

-‘Jim Crow’ laws existed in many southern states. These prevented black Americans from exercising their legal rights
-literacy tests before somebody could vote made it very difficult for black Americans to live in ‘white’ areas
-were forced to attend seperate and often much poorer schools
-public buildings, transport, restaurants and many other places were segregated
-used seperate park benches, water fountains and bathrooms
-worst of all, they could be ‘lyched’ and very often nothing was done about it, lynchings averaged more thant 50 a years in the 1920s

Question 38

The Red Scare:

Answer 38

-Fear of communism
Due to:
Propaganda
Bolshevik Revolution
Strikes (3600 strikes in 1919)
Bombs
The Palmer Raids:
-industrial workers were under suspicion of leading a communist plot of strikes
-4000 - 6000 arrested under suspicion of being communists
-556 deported

Question 39

What effects did the changing of policies have?

Answer 39

-anyone with left wing ideas became a suspect, trade unions were harassed; membership fell in the 1920s
-Henry Ford refused to allow his employees to join a trade union
-Socialists were harassed, Sacco and Venzetti, two Italian Anarchists, were accused of robber and murder in 1920
-their trial was a farce because the judge was obviously biased
-the case dragged for 7 years before the two were executed in 1927, even though somebody else actually confessed to the murders
-they were scapegoats for the fear and hatred felt by many Americans

Question 40

The Ku Klux Klan:

Answer 40

-was a secret organisation set up in the south of the USA in the 1860s
-in 1915, the KKK was reformed by William Simmons a clergyman. By the 1920s there were 5,000,000 members of the KKK
-worked on the fears of some Americans at the increase of immigration to the USA in the years after the First World War
-used violent methods of dealing with its opponents, thousands of blacks were shipped, branded or hanged without trial (lynching)

Question 41

What happened to the KKK?

Answer 41

-for a while, they were very powerful, attacked Blacks, Jews, Catholics and anyone who was not fully American (aliens)
-True Americans were WASPs
-1925: a leading member of the KKK, David Stephenson, was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of a young woman
-he was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison 31 years later
-within a year, the KKK membership fell from 5,000,000 to 300,000

Question 42

The Black Renaissance:

Answer 42

-black culture and pride flourished in the cities, Harlem (NY) became the centre of these
-talented black artists and writers collected there
-their work expressed the social and economic grievances of blacks and made whites aware of the ‘black experience’ of rootlessness and alienation
-black theatre attracted big audiences and black perfominf artists- comedians, singer and dances like Josephine Barker-were successful in musical shows, clubs and black revues.
-music, whether jazz, or blues, became the most influential art forms of the 20th century

Question 43

NAACP:

Answer 43

-led by W.E.B DuBois, it was dedicated to ‘equal rights and opportunities for all.’
-it grew rapidlyin stregnth and support, with nearly 90,000 members
-it was determined to challenge white supremacy, end of the segregation laws and make blacks aware of their civil rights, including the right to vote
-DuBois was also the father of the pan-african movement, recognising cultural links between black people in Africa and the USA
-it carried out investigations which revealed the extent of lynching and proved that it was unjustified and sadistic
-it failed to get a law against lynching passed but caused public outcry and the number fell dramatically

Question 44

UNIA:

Answer 44

-founded by Marcus Garvey, he said that blacks should have pride in their colours, culture and history
-he blamed their problems on white racism and offered disillusioned black hope of a better future
-wanted to establish close contacts with Africa, and introduced a repatriation ‘back to Africa’ movement where he ecnouraged black to return to their original homeland to help develop it and escape white racism
-set up the Black Star steamship line where he pressed the League of Nations to hand over former colonies to a new African republic where he would be president
-1925 Garvey was arrested on fraud charges, and later deported to Jamaica

Question 45

The ‘Monkey Trial’:

Answer 45

-in some states it was illegal to teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, this led to the ‘Monkey Trial’ in Dayton Tennessee in 1925
-a schoolteacher (John Scopes) was prosecuted for teaching the evolution in a biology lesson, which was illegal in Tennessee
-the case became famous all over the world and although the teacher was found guilty, the outcome was generally regarded as a vicotry for Darrow (criminal lawyer) and the modernists, and a blow to the fundamentalists (W. Jennings Bryan) who were trying to censor what was taught in schools
-the decision was overtuned on appeal by the Tennessee Supreme Court the following year