The Roaring Twenties Flashcards
Why did America not join the League Of Nations?
They didn’t want to become involved in European affairs.
What was the name of the policy that America followed after WWI, and which party enforced this?
Isolationism. It was enforced by the Republicans who believed in Lasseiz-faire and rugged isolationism.
What happened at the 1920 Presidential election?
Harding was elected as the Republican candidate and a policy of isolationism began.
What was the Fordney McCumber Tariff of 1922?
It restricted free trade with other countries as it put taxes on all foreign made goods. This meant American goods were cheaper so American industry boomed. It also gave the President the power to raise or lower the tariffs - Harding and Coolidge raised it 32 times.
How did Europe retaliate to the high tariffs?
They put tariffs on American products.
What is mass production and who helped to fine tune it?
Mass production means that goods can be produced cheaply on a large scale. Henry Ford built the Model T Ford on an assembly line, which mechanically moved the car to other areas of the factory where employees could complete the same task over again using standardised parts. This cut costs and production times - it took 93 minutes to make a car, not 14 hours and each car costs only $295.
What was the effect of the expanding car industry?
Other areas boomed: glass, steel and oil. Texas became hugely wealthy due to oil deposits.
Roads were built. Better infrastructure allowed people to travel further so motels and drive ins were constructed as people explored America.
What is the Cycle of Prosperity?
As industries boom, employees are paid more. This means they can afford to buy products and so the industries produce more. This cycle continues and has an affect on supplying industries and secondary industries (e.g. Motels were caused by the car industry).
Give some examples of how industry boomed in 1920s America.
The number of telephones doubled.
Synthetics industries mushroomed.
Electricity companies prospered due to use of electric motors as oppose to steam driven ones - 10 large companies controlled 72%of electric power.
Construction boomed - Empire State Building
