The Changing Political Environment 1917-80

Question 1

Republicans

Answer 1

• Associated with the idea of minimal gov. intervention with business & daily life.
• Agreed with low taxes & conservative social policies.

Question 2

Democrats

Answer 2

• Associated with the idea of civil rights, unions in the workplace & progressive reform.
• 1930’s Democrats associated with gov. intervention for social & economic reforms.

Question 3

Separation Of Powers

Answer 3

• Laws made by the legislative group.
• Carried out by the executive group.
• Enforced by the judicial group.
• Each group could curd action of some of the others, making sure no group had all the power.

Question 4

Congress

Answer 4

• Law making body of the USA.
• Two elective bodies, senate & house of representatives.
• Both have to agree with laws before they become active.
• President can veto any laws agreed by Congress.

Question 5

How is power shared out?

Answer 5

• Jury Trial- 12 decide rather than the judge.
• Legislature- Senate & House Of Representative both keep laws.
• Search & Seizure- Can’t come in & search.
• Taxes - Right to make policy.
• Freedom Of Speech.

Question 6

Woodrow Wilson (Democrat).

Answer 6

1913-21

Question 7

In what ways did Woodrow Wilson behave in a controversial way during his presidency?

Answer 7

• Took US into WW1 (despite campaigning to keep out of it).

- Tried to involve the USA even more closely to international affairs once the war was over.

Question 8

Warren G. Harding (Republican).

Answer 8

1921-23

Question 9

What did President Harding mean by the term ‘Normalcy’?

Answer 9

• Normalcy meant a return to things as they had been before the war.
• Harding defined ‘normalcy’ as a normal stable, steady way of life.

Question 10

What problems did Harding try to remove to achieve normalcy?

Answer 10

• Harding didn’t want to turn the clock back, wanted to shift focus back on the USA.
• The government had to do several things straight away: reduce taxation on American people, introduce tariffs to protect the industry.

Question 11

Isolationism

Answer 11

-Remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially affairs of other countries.

Question 12

What steps did the USA take to achieve isolationism?

Answer 12

• 1921 Emergency Quota Act- cutting back n number of immigrants coming into the country.
• Introduced trade tariffs that favored US businesses.

Question 13

Why did Republicanism seem more appealing after Democrat Presidency of Woodrow Wilson?

Answer 13

• Wilson took American into previous wars and fought to keep them.
• People liked the idea of laissez-faire.
• Harding seemed like a president that wouldn’t interfere.

Question 14

When was the First Red Scare?

Answer 14

1919-20.

Question 15

Communism Revolution

Answer 15

• Many Americans frightened by the Communist Revolution that happened in October 1917.
• American Socialist Party & American Communist Party established during this period.
• Some believed the communist revolution was going to happen in America, immigrants in America were under suspicion of being involved in plotting a revolution.

Question 16

Industrial Unrest

Answer 16

• Happened in 1919.
• 100,000 members of Boston police force went on strike.
• The communists were blamed for this too.
• Feelings of anger and animosity arose towards communists and many Americans believed some of the events of 1919-20 were linked to communism.

Question 17

September 1920

Answer 17

• The bomb exploded on Wall Street killing 38 people.

- Another bomb destroyed the front of the Attorney General, Mitchell Palmer’s house.

Question 18

What were the Palmer Raids?

Answer 18

• A Mitchell Palmer organised attacks against left-wing organisations.
• Spread Rumours about Red Scare saying over 150,000 communists lived in the country.
• Stated Communists were working on behalf of the government to spread communism.

Question 19

What was the purpose of the Palmer Raids?

Answer 19

• Palmer Raids were a response to imaginary threats.
• As many as 6,000 were arrested and held in prison without a hearing and thousands were deported.
• Most immigrants were peaceful people.
• Eventually, they were released and the Red Scare receded.

Question 20

What was the First Red Scare?

Answer 20

• Refers to the fear of communism in the USA in the 1920s.

- 150,000 anarchists or communists in the USA in 1920 alone (represented only 0.1% of the overall population of USA).

Question 21

What did the communists do in Russia 1917?

Answer 21

-Overthrown the royal family in Russia and murdered them in the following year.

Question 22

Bomb Explosions 1919

Answer 22

• On New Year’s day, 1920, over 6,000 people were arrested and put into prison.
• Many released a few weeks later and only 3 guns were found in their homes.
• The judicial system turned a blind eye as America’s national security was paramount.

Question 23

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

Answer 23

• Arrested in May 1920.
• Charged with wages of robbery in which 2 guards were killed.
• Anarchists, when they were found both had two loaded guns on them.
• 61 people claimed they saw both men at the robbery/murders but 107 claimed they had seen both men elsewhere, both were found guilty.
• Spent 7 years in prison, despite protests and petitions two men were executed on the 24th August 1927.

Question 24

KKK

Answer 24

• A racist group established by people who believed that white people were better and who wanted to see black people remaining slaves.
• By 1921, had 100,000 members. By the mid-1920s had 5 million members.
• The KKK lynched people.
• Membership reduced by 1928, only had a few hundred thousand members.

Question 25

Great Depression

Answer 25

• Started in 1929 and lasted a decade.
• Shantytowns appeared across the US an unemployed people were evicted from their homes.
• Depression worsened in the 1930s, causing hardship for millions of Americans, many looked fo the government for assistance.

Question 26

Herbert Hoover (Republican)

Answer 26

1929-33.