Mock Exam Flashcards
What laws were passed against immigrants?
1917 - imposed a literacy test on immigrant
1921 - Congress passed the Emergency Quotas Act
1924 - the National Origins Act was passed
Before the first world war, did USA have restrictions on immigrants?
No, America had instead become a ‘melting-pot’ of races and nationalities. There were more religions and more languages in the USA than in any other country
What was the law of 1917 passed for immigrants?
- law passed for a literacy test on immigrants
- this mostly favoured those from Northern and Western Europe (mostly whites and those protestant)
- this law wasn’t effective
- after war ended, fears that millions of Europeans would flood to USA
What was the law of 1921 passed for immigrants?
- Congress passed the Emergency Quotas Act
- number of people admitted to USA each year limited to 3% of all emigrants from that country who were resident in USA in 1910
- this favoured Northern and Western Europe again bc these were the people who had emigrated in the largest numbers over the previous 200 years
What was the law of 1924 passed for immigrants?
- the National Origins Act passed
- 3% figure reduced to 2% and the year of residency moved back to 1890
- the overall number of European immigrants was restricted to 100,000
In 1896, what did the US supreme court give legal approval to?
- the Jim Crow Laws (treating blacks as inferior people)
- white southerners could protect their way of life and continue to exploit those who they believed to be racially inferior
Why did Americans dislike black people?
- immigrants provided cheap labour and therefore created competition for jobs
- immigrants might bring political ideas (ie communism from Russia)
- racial abuse because of their colour
What Act made alcohol illegal?
The Volstead Act - January 1920
Last until 1933
What was ‘liquor’
Anything that contained 0.5% alcohol or more
By 1914, how many states in the USA were ‘dry’
12 states
Why were people against alcohol?
- many alcohol drinks were german, and it was said to be unpatriotic to be drinking german drinks during the war
- became associated with absenteeism from work
- poor families suffered from the alcoholic activities of the father of the house
What groups campaigned for prohibition?
- Women’s Christian Temperance Union
- Anti-Saloon League
By the end of the war, how many states were ‘dry’?
75%
By the end of the decade, how many speakeasies were across the USA?
30,000 in New York alone
200,000 across USA as a whole
Disadvantages of alcohol?
- 5,000 people died each year from drinking homemade moonshine
- alcohol trade simply driver underground
- bootleggers made lots of money smuggling into USA
- speakeasies opened and sold beer and other drinks
- prohibition agents - far too few in number
