The Roaring 20's: USA, 1919-1929 Flashcards

0
Q

How was the economy in the USA after WW1

A

It flourished: the industry expanded rapidly due to mass production being introduced, the economy prospered and people’s lifestyles greatly improved.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
1
Q

Why did people look to the USA for leadership after WW1?

A

They looked for leadership to prevent future wars and for financial assistance

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Was life better for everyone in the US in 1920s

A

No, farmers and African Americans did not have an easy life

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What is isolationism?

A

Avoiding European/world affairs and interests of others, and keeping yourself to yourself

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What are 4 of the 14 points?

A
  • a ban on secret treaties and reduction in arms
  • self-determination for countries that were once part of the Turkish and Austro-Hungarian Empire
  • independence for Belgium
  • France to regain Alsace-Lorraine
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What is self-reduction?

A

The right of nations to rule themselves

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Who was Woodrow Wilson replaced by in 1920?

A

Warren Harding, 1920

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What did Warren Harding want the US to return to?

A

‘Return to normality’, ie as though the war had never happened

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Were the US for or against the war?

A

Against it. Many lives had been lost - but no-where near as close as the deaths in France and GB

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

How did the USA profit from WW1?

A

During the war, the US lent out loans to Britain and France, which they then had to pay back

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Did the US join the League of Nations? Who made the decision?

A

No they didn’t, and it was Warren Harding that refused to join

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What was the advantage for the US of not joining the League?

A

They could still trade with countries that were in crisis

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What was the disadvantage for the US of not joining the League?

A

The League collapsed because they weren’t in it

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Why did the Americans not want to join the league?

A
  • They didn’t want their country involved in disputes taking place further away
  • They believed the US would have to bear the cost of keeping the peace
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What was the Fordney-McCumber tariff?

A

Where the American government put a tax on foreign goods and made them more expensive then the American goods

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Why was tax put on American goods?

A

So that foreign goods were more expensive then the same American products so that the US could make a profit and to protect American industry

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What year was the Fordney-McCumber tariff started?

A

1922

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Was the Fordney-McCumber tariff effective in the long-term?

A

No, because it encouraged foreign governments to retaliate and put tariffs of American goods.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

In the early years of WW1, how did US profit?

A
  • American industries supplied arms and equipment
  • American firms were able to take over much of the export Business of the European powers while they caught up in the fighting
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Name a mass production technique

A

Assembly line, pioneered by Henry Ford before WW1

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Who founded the Ford Motor Company and in what year?

A

Henry Ford

1903

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What year was the assembly line used at the Ford Motor Company?

A

In 1914

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What did the assembly line mean?

A
  • a car could be produced one-tenth of the time previously taken
  • the price of cars came down
  • wages for the production-line workers went up
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

By 1930, how many cars were in the US?

A

30 million

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

How many jobs depended on the motor industry, directly or indirectly?

A

4 million

25
Q

What were consumer goods? Give examples.

A

Goods for ordinary families to buy.

E.g. Washing machines, vacuum cleaners

26
Q

How did sales benefit in the US?

A

Because of hire purchase - people paying a deposit and then paying off the interest charged by banks (which was relatively low)

27
Q

What benefits did consumer demand offer?

A

It helped factories expand, meaning more jobs were available

28
Q

What was hire purchase?

A

When people payed a deposit and then payed the rest off in instalments (ie spread out over time)

29
Q

Why did sales benefit so enormously during the 1920’s thanks to the use of hire purchase?

A

Because lots of people were doing it, and it was further helped thanks to the relatively low interest charged by banks. The increase in consumer demand helped factories expand, which meant more jobs were available. The economy was booming!

30
Q

Why did the price of shares increase?

A

Because many people bought shares in companies for investments. With increasing demand, the price of shares went up and up

31
Q

Why were people willing to borrow money from banks in order to buy shares?

A

Because many people believed their value would continue to rise, and were therefore willing to borrow money from banks in order to buy shares, often using their house as a guarantee.

32
Q

Why were banks willing to lend more money then they actually had?

A

Because they were confident that with rising share prices, values would go up sufficiently before investors wanted to withdraw their savings. This is called buying shared ‘on the margin’.

33
Q

What two policies did the republican governments of 1920s believe in?

A

Laissez-faire - interfering in businesses as little as possible

Rugged individualism - believing that individuals were responsible for their own lives

34
Q

On average, how much did share prices go up by in the 1920’s?

A

300%

35
Q

What sort of entertainment developed during the Roaring 20’s?

A
  • Dancing (flappers, ie the Charleston, tango)
  • TV and films (Charlie Chaplin)
  • Radio and gramophone records helped jazz to spread
  • Radio stations helped to increase the popularity of sports
36
Q

Why didn’t farmers benefit from the Roaring 20’s?

A
  • they produced more food then was needed, and as a result, prices fell
  • this led to reduced incomes, leaving many unable to keep up their mortgage payments
  • some farmers evicted, others forced to sell the land
37
Q

Why didn’t African Americans benefit from the 1920’s?

A
  • almost 1 million lost their jobs in the 1920’s

- many moved to the north to find lower-paid jobs

38
Q

What industries didn’t benefit from the boom?

A

The coal industry declined due to competition from new forms of power such as electricity and gas. This meant wage cuts and job losses in the coal and cotton industries

39
Q

Reasons why immigrants were disliked by Americans

A
  • provided cheap labour and therefore created competition for jobs
  • they might bring new political ideas, such a communism from Russia, which would threaten American democracy
  • many immigrants tended to concentrate in ghettos within cities, where violence and crime were high
40
Q

What was the Ku Klux Klan’s intentions?

A

To terrorise African Americans (who had just gained their freedom in the American civil war) and other hated groups (Jews, Catholics) into accepting inferior status under the control of the WASPS.

41
Q

Was the KKK popular at the beginning of the 1920’s?

A

Yes, it had nearly 5 million members in the early 1920’s

42
Q

Who did the KKK attack?

A

Jews, Catholics (those not protestant) as well as African Americans

43
Q

What was a main fear of African Americans

A

That they would contaminate what was seen as “pure” American culture. All other cultures that were not American were seen as inferior.

44
Q

What was the KKK’s routine?

A

Meet in secret at night

Sometimes paraded openly during the day in white hoods and white sheets

45
Q

Acts of violence by the KKK?

A

Rape
Beaten
Sometimes lynched

46
Q

Why did the KKK often get away with acts of violence?

A

Because those in high authority (police, judges) were often members of the KKK, and so on the side of the white Americans

47
Q

2 reasons for why prohibition was supported during WW1

A
  • drinking alcohol became associated with absenteeism from work
  • main beers drunk in the US were German, and it was said to be unpatriotic to be drinking German beer during the war
48
Q

How much of America had prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks by the end of WW1?

A

3/4 of the states in America

49
Q

Why did many people celebrate the banning of the ‘demon drink’?

A

Because alcohol was associated with:

  • social abuses (such as family neglect)
50
Q

Why was prohibition a failure?

A
  • alcohol trade was driven underground
  • bootleggers made a lot of money smuggling alcohol into the USA
  • illegal brewing of alcohol (moonshine) within the USA
  • speakeasies (illegal bars) opened and sold beer and other drinks
51
Q

How did the government try to deal with the problems of prohibition?

A
  • appointed prohibition agents, but there were far too few in number
  • two agents, Einstein and Smith, gained a reputation for wearing elaborate disguises
  • they raised 3,000 speakeasies in the first half of the 1920’s
52
Q

Did crime decrease?

A

No, it worsened. Gangs of criminals ran bootlegging schemes and other forms of crime (drugs, prostitution) like a business. Gangs would sometimes fight for control over the trade. They controlled speakeasies by running protection rackets, and the police officers dared not to intervene.

53
Q

Who was the most notorious gang leader? What did he control? How?

A

Al Capone controlled practically all of the city of Chicago. He did this by bribing the mayor and other politicians. He employed over 1,000 men.

54
Q

What was the most famous massacre?

A

The St Valentines Massacre, 1929. Al Capone’s gang shot down 6 members of the rival Bugs Moran gang.

55
Q

Why did prohibition end?

A
  • because after the wall street crash, employment was low and misery was high
  • it created legal jobs
56
Q

Who promised to repeal the law of prohibition?

A

F.D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election campaign

57
Q

Long-term causes of the US stock change collapse in 1929

A
  • over-production in agriculture drove prices down
  • over-production in consumer goods did the same, and once the families had bought these goods (ie refrigerators) they did not need more
  • lack of credit control as investors began to rely on share prices continuing to rise. There was a lack of regulation to control business activities
  • the effects of the tariff policy - americans restricted imports by high tariffs which encouraged other countries to retaliate - made it difficult for US to export surplus goods
  • unequal distribution of wealth reduced the size of American market
58
Q

Short-term causes of the US stock change collapse in 1929

A
  • many people bought and sold shares to make quick profits instead of keeping their money invested in the same Business for some time. They were speculators, not investors
  • companies were forced by shareholders to pay out profits to shareholders rather than reinvesting the profits
  • americans borrowed money on credit to buy their shares
59
Q

Immediate consequences of the Wall Street Crash

A
  • many individuals went bankrupt - they couldn’t pay back the loans they used to buy their (now worthless) shares
  • some homeowners lost their homes as couldn’t pay their mortgages
  • many farmers lost money, as well as people who had savings when banks collapsed
60
Q

Big institutions who suffered from Wall Street Crash

A
  • about 11,000 banks stopped trading between 1929-1933

- demand for goods of all type fell, meaning production fell amd so did wages and jobs

61
Q

What did Roosevelt say when he insisted that the situation wasn’t as bad (at first)

A

“Prosperity is just around the corner”