Paper 1 Section A - 1920s America Flashcards
Economic Boom
A period in 1920s america where people saw an increase in production, sales and wages
. It was a period of prosperity.
4 causes of the Economic Boom
Market for consumer goods and stocks and shares- people bought shares and stocks in businesses that then went up and advertisement became more prominent meaning that more people wanted to buy things
Republican Policies - it fuelled the boom and gave people more freedom and contributed tot the cycle of prosperity
Industrial Strength - lots of natural resources and cattle ranching. Mining of natural resources meant more jobs and more resources increased production of things like steel.
First World War - they were able to sell things to other countries so they make more money. Overtook Germany in chemical production
Henry Ford
Standardisation - meant cars could be cheaper and more affordable meaning he had more people he could sell the cars to
Assembly lines - each worker worked on specific part of the car and learnt how to do it quickly. Then the car would be assembled after all the pieces were made.
The laissez fairy attititude meant that Ford could increase the wages $5 a day and reduce working hours allowing people to work shifts so cars could be made 24/7
Republican polices
Isolationism - they did not get involved in other countries affairs meaning al, their money stayed within their country and went back to American businesses
Lassoes-faire - meant that business men had freedom over their business and could run it how they wanted to - e,g Henry Ford
Tariffs - this made it quite expensive to import things into American meaning that people bought more things that were made in America s9 money went back to American businesses
Examples
Emergency Tariff - May 1929 - increased taxes
Fordney Mccumber tariff - 1922 - peak percentage of tax
Taxes - Taxes were brought down to the minimum so people and businesses had more money to spend on goods meaning more money went to American businesses. The rich earning over 1m had their Taxes reduced from 73% to 24%
Entertainment industries
Radio - there were barely any stations at the start of the 1920s and by the end there were 108 and NBO ams CBS were nation wide - more jobs?
Film - films became more prominent and people had more free time s9 they went to the cinema more and the new was also on before the film - Hollywood emerging - helped women gain more independence
Sport- it became more prominent and women and students were able to do a lot more sports - baseball was a big money sport
Music - Jazz became a prominent music genre this was due to a lot of black people moving to the cities - Duke Ellington. helped some of the African Americans
Books - writers such as Robert frost became more popular - magazines gained popularity and people started making more and characters such as Winnie the Pooh and Betty Boop were popular.
Women - how their lives changed
Flappers
More revealing clothing
Could go out unsupervised and would be seen in public kissing men
They got more independence.
More makeup
More women were working
House work made easier by new technologies.
Some women didn’t like it - anti flirt club
Some not affected - African Americans , poorer women, Bilbe belt
Immigration
The red scare - some people were against capitalism and were communist or anarchists and they wanted to change the government.
They were worried that some immigrants would bring this to the country. Sacco and Vanzetti - convicted of a crime because they were anarchists more than because they were guilty
1921 immigration Quota act
- the proportion of people allowed was a percentage of the original amount of people in the country in 1910
1924 nations origins act
- previous figure reduced by 2%more english and irish were allowed as there were more there in 1890
1929
-only 150,000 imigrants allowed and barely any asians or estern europeans
Prohhibition
Many people wanted it introduced. Many of them were religious or didnt like alcohol as they believed it led to more violence. People though it help bolhevism thrive.They introduced prohibition in jan 1920.
Consequences of prohibition
Organised crime thrived
There was lots of speakeasies and bootleggers
There was lots of corruption within thr police and the prohibition in general was difficult to enforce due to limited numbers of officers
It also led to more violence from gangs - valentines day massacre
Rise of Al capone
Al Capone
He was the leader of the Torrio gang
He opened a lot of speakeasies provided “decent liquor and fair gambling”
He used a lot of his money to actually help the community. For example he opened soup kitchens.
He did plan the st valentines day massacre and he did kill a lot of people while he was in power he also had a lot of sway with some police and Judges so he was not liked by all.
Nickname scarface
Parents were from italy.
The prohibition fueled organised crime as it created a massive demand for alcohol.
Lots of gang related murders
KKK
They had 5 milliom members by 1923
They had a lot of control in the rural areas and they would go around lynching ,hurting and terrorising Black people as well as other minorities such as jews.
They wanted all people loving in america to be WASPs.
They believed in white supremecy and made the lives of black people worse.
The KKK had a faire big of influence as David curtis stephenson by 1924 practically controlled the whole of indiana. He was a grand dragon.
There were also a few senators e.g georgias who were Klansmen.
