Part 3: World War 1 to Great Depression Flashcards
General causes of WW1
- Militarism
- alliances
- Imperilism
- Nationalism
British liner sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. Almost 1200 people died - 128 were Americans. Turned American public opinion against Germany and the Central Powers.
Lusitania
A promise Germany made to America in 1916 - after President Wilson threatened to sever ties - to stop sinking their ships without warning. Germany started unrestricted submarine warfare within a year – helped push the U.S. to declaring war.
SUSSEX PLEDGE
Intercepted telegram from the German foreign minister promising the return of lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona if Mexico allied with Germany against the U.S. Printed in U.S. newspapers in 1917 – helped push the U.S. to declaring war.
Zimerman Telegram
Passed in 1917 – requires men to register with the government in order to be randomly selected for military service. Helped the government supply manpower for the military.
SELECTIVE SERVICE ACT
400,000 served in the armed forces – more than half in France. Served in segregated units and were excluded from the navy and marines. Two men, Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts, were the first Americans to receive France’s highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre. War
AFRICAN AMERICANS IN WORLD WAR 1
Regulated the economy during the war – encouraging businesses to use massproduction and standardize products. Prices and profits increased.
WAR INDUSTRIES BOARD (WIB)
Government propaganda agency created to promote the war to the American public.
Committee of Public Information (CPI)
Also known as “Liberty Bonds” Way to pay for the war, American public purchased them to prove their patriotism.
WAR BONDS
1917 law creating procedure for detecting and imprisoning spies. Government could censor the mail and arrest anyone for interfering with the draft. Led to Schenck v U.S . – Supreme Court upheld limits on free speech when “a clear and present danger” is evident.
ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917
1918 law against disloyal or abusive language against the government, flag, or Constitution.
SEDITION ACT
President Wilson’s plan for peace: First five points to prevent another war: no secret treaties, freedom of the seas for all, foster more free trade, reduction of arms, and consider the interest of colonial peoples. Next eight deal with boundary changes. Last is the creation of a League of Nations. Allied leaders wanted to impose a harsher treaty on Germany.
FOURTEEN POINTS
Peace treaty creates 9 new nations, shifted other boundaries, barred Germany from maintaining an army, required Germany to take the blame for the war, and pay reparations ($33 billion) to the Allies. Creates many new problems – humiliates Germany, excludes Russia, ignores colonized peoples’ claims for self-determination.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
International organization to address diplomatic crises proposed in the Treaty of Versailles. U.S. never ratified the Treaty of Versailles, primarily because the League of Nations threatened the established U.S. policy of isolationism
LEAGUE OF NATION
The movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that lasted up until the 1960s. The first Great Migration (1910–1930), numbered about 1.6 million who left mostly rural areas to migrate to northern industrial cities.
GREAT MIGRATION
Italian immigrants and anarchists. Arrested for robbery and murder in 1920 – case stirred up controversy since many thought their trial was unfair due to the men’s radical beliefs and because they were immigrants. Both men were convicted and executed.
SACCO & VANEZETTI
American plan to loan Germany $2.5 billion to pay back Britain and France, so they could pay the U.S. back for the war. Partly caused by the U.S. high tariffs – making it impossible for Britain and France to repay us without looking to collect their reparations from Germany. Caused resentment from everyone involved.
DAWES PLAN
Corruption scandal involving the Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall. He was secretly leasing federal oil reserves to private companies in return for cash gifts.
TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL
Set up in 1921 to control the number of immigrants who could enter the U.S. from each foreign country, due to the prevailing nativist attitude “Keep America for the Americans.” Discriminated against those from eastern and southern Europe. Did not allow any Japanese immigration.
QUOTA SYSTEM
African-American community in Florida that was burned to the ground and some of its residents killed by white residents from neighboring towns. In the 1980s, Rosewood survivors and their descendants were compensated by the Florida state government – first time a state had ever voted to compensate victims of racial violence.
ROSEWOOD INCIDENT
Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Support for the amendment came largely from the rural South and West by the mid-1920s only 19% supported Prohibition. Repealed in 1933 with the 21st Amendment.
18th AMENDMENT
Founded in 1909 to urge African Americans to protest racial violence and fight for legislation to protect African American rights. W.E.B. Du Bois is a founding member
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (N.A.A.C.P)
Believed that African American should push for full equality and should not be content with an inferior social and economic status. Launched the “Niagara Movement” calling for equal economic opportunities and the right to vote. Founding member of the NAACP.
W.E.B. DUBOIS
Born into slavery, later founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In 1895, he proposed the “Atlanta Compromise” – the idea that African Americans would accept segregation and white rule in the South as long as they were given free vocational training and enjoyed basic legal rights.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
Believed that African Americans should build a separate society. Promoted African American businesses, and encourage followers to return to Africa to help the natives build a mighty nation. Started the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914
MARCUS GARVEY
Literary and artistic movement celebrating African American culture. Led by well-educated, middle-class African Americans who expressed pride in the African American experience. Fundamentalism
Harlem Renaissance
Direct negotiations with several major powers to promote world peace. Held instead of joining the League of Nations. U.S. proposed partial disarmament (reducing the number of weapons).
Washington Naval Conference
Agreement between the U.S., Britain, France, and Japan to respect each other’s territories in the Pacific and to submit any disputes to a joint conference of all four nations. Agreement was worked out at the same time as the Washington Naval Conference.
Four-Power Treaty
In 1927, 15 nations pledged to not use war as an instrument of policy. Permitted nations to engage in a defensive war and had no means of enforcement.
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Early 1920s, 300,000 Americans moved to Florida – land boom dominated the Florida economy. Hurricane struck South Florida in 1926 – and the boom turned to a bust.
ROARING 20S IN FLORIDA
People in the 1920s started paying for things with credit and racked up huge debt. They were mostly paid off in installments with interest charges. As debt grew, spending slowed down.
INSTALLMENT PLAN
Grants women the right to vote. Passed in 1919.
19th Amendment
People began buying stocks to make quick profits, ignoring the risks. Many began buying on margin – only paying a down payment and borrowing the rest to pay for the stock. Stock market continued to spiral upward based on inflated stock prices rather than the companies’ actual worth – until the crash in 1929.
SPECULATION BOOM
October 29, 1929 – Day the stock market crashed. In the following weeks investors lost about $30 billion. Starts a chain reaction that leads to the Great Depression.
BLACK TUESDAY
Passed by Congress in 1930. Highest protective tariff – designed to protect American farmers and manufacturers from foreign competition, but did the opposite. Cut U.S. trade in half.
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
Hardest hit areas of a series of droughts in the 1930s. Droughts dried crops and turned the soil into dust – windstorms carried the dust hundreds of miles. Many farmers left their homes and headed west to California to find work.
DUST BOWL
WWI veterans and their families (10,00020,000) who arrived in D.C. to support the Patman Bill. After the bill was voted down, about 2000 marchers refused to leave. President Hoover feared they might turn violent and had a force of 1000 soldiers disperse the veterans. His reaction shocks many and helps him lose the election to FDR.
BONUS ARMY
One of the first acts taken by Roosevelt to restore the nation’s faith in the banking system – banks could only reopen after the government inspected them and found them financially sound. Congress went further by establishing the FDIC – insuring individual bank accounts up to $5000.
BANK HOLIDAY
Achieved higher crop prices by paying farmers to leave a certain amount of every acre unseeded. Put more money into farmers’ hands. In 1936, was ruled unconstitutional. In 1938, a new act was passed that put surplus crops in government storage until prices rose.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
Program that helped provide jobs, provide hydroelectric power, and control floods in the impoverished South. They constructed and maintained over 20 dams on the Tennessee River.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Put men (age 18-25) to work building roads, developing parks, and planting trees. Had to send home most of the money they earned – they were provided with food, lodging, and uniforms. Most of the work was done in the Great Plains.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Part of the 2nd New Deal in 1935. Increased employment by creating new public works projects. Built airports, roads, public buildings. Also sewed clothes for the needy, painted murals, and performed in theater groups.
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
One of the most important acts passed during the New Deal – still exists today. Provides Americans with a “safety net” – unemployment insurance, retirement benefits, and aid for disabled and orphaned Americans.
Social Security Act
