The USA 1918-41 (IGCSE EDEXCEL)

Question 1

Economic Benefits of WW1

Answer 1

-35% growth in factory production
-steel industry; 1910: 26.1 million tonnes of steel VS 1920: 42.1 million tonnes
-beneficial to other industries such as; natural resources, transports, consumer goods
-Agriculture: prices for goods rose by 25% during the war, US supplied 30% of the world’s wheat and 55% of the world’s cotton
-American Workers: demand for goods caused employment to rise by 1.3 million over the last 2 years of the war, many workers received wage benefits, e.g. unskilled worker wages rose by 20% during the war, more opportunities for women and black Americans due to the need to replace fighters

Question 2

Impact of Henry Ford and mass production on economic boom

Answer 2

• caused a tremendous drop in price of cars, causing an immense increase in demand for cars
• in turn benefitted other industries which produced the materials necessary for construction of a car (e.g.steel, rubber, glass)
  -production of a Model T Ford happened every 10 seconds

Question 3

Impact of credit on economic boom

Answer 3

• encouraged consumers to buy more goods
• in 1929, 75% of cars and 50% of electrical devices were bought with hire purchase
• caused increase in demand, and increased production in factories

Question 4

Impact of advertising on economic boom

Answer 4

-1929, 2 billion dollars spent on advertising, 600,000 people employed in advertising
- created a “consumer society” which encouraged people to buy new products and spend more on brand names

Question 5

Impact of consumerism on economic boom

Answer 5

• caused mass increase in buying of consumer goods, e.g. 5000 fridges sold in 1921, 1 million in 1929.
• shopping became a “leisure activity” which helped the economy to continue growing

Question 6

Impact of stock market on economic boom

Answer 6

• Caused economy to continue growing initially
  The Boom Cycle: Investment into stock market> more workers employed> more wages to spend> more advertising encouraging consumers to spend wages> more goods bought using hire purchase> more goods made using mass production>

Question 7

Problems in farming in the 1920s

Answer 7

• as production rates were rising due to the prior demand from WW1, demand fell due to recovery of European agriculture
• caused many workers to go bankrupt and workers lost their jobs

Question 8

Problems in older industries in the 1920s

Answer 8

• with the introduction of newer industries, older ones started to decline
• demand for goods lowered and they faced increased competition from products that could replace them
• large numbers of industry workers lost their jobs and unemployment rates rose
• cutting of wages and increase in number of strikes

Question 9

Leisure Industry (cinema, jazz, dancing, sport, radio and motors)

Answer 9

• vast increase in net spend on leisure activities (1.8 billion more in 1929 compared to 10 years before)
• increase in popularity of films due to introduction of sound and colour
• radio became the equivalent back then of TV today (10 million in the US,1929)

Question 10

Changing position of women

Answer 10

• Increase in employment of women due to availability of jobs during and after the war
• women were given the right to vote as per the 19th Amendment
  -women were expected to cook, clean, and raise children in traditional households
  -Flappers: a term used to describe women who lived an untraditional life

Question 11

The (First) Red Scare

Answer 11

• event caused by the worry that immigrants from Europe were spreading communist values to the US
• The Palmer Raids; an event caused by the red scare, resulted in the arrests of thousands and the deportation of 600 radicals

Question 12

Sacco and Vanzetti

Answer 12

-Two immigrants with anarchist connections were accused of a serious crime (arrested 1920)
-Prosecuted and discriminated against unfairly due to the anti-immigrant and anti-anarchist nature of the judge and jury (trial may 1921)
- sentenced to death by electrocution in 1927.

Question 13

Experience of black Americans

Answer 13

• Black and white Americans were segregated by the Jim Crow laws in the south
• lynchings occurred frequently and govt. and police rarely stopped them, often joining in

Question 14

The KKK

Answer 14

• Racist group formed to defend white supremacy over black people, restarted and led by William Simmons
• took part in violent crimes against black Americans, e.g. lynchings.
• contained some very notable members during the 1920s, e.g. senators, governors, mayors.

Question 15

The monkey trial

Answer 15

-Trial over the sentence of John Scopes, who taught evolution in a school. (Trial: 10th July 1925)
- Trial turned into a debate of Fundamentalists VS Modernists (William Jennings-Brian VS Clarence Darrow)
- John Scopes found guilty by jury, but fundamentalists were mocked around the country

Question 16

Prohibition

Answer 16

• The banning of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic drinks
• caused the health of Americans to improve and alcohol consumption to decrease
• caused an increase in gang and illegal activity with relation to transporting, manufacturing and selling alcohol. E.g. Al Capone
• many people attempted manufacturing alcohol at home i.e. moonshine.

Question 17

Causes of the Wall Street crash (WSC)

Answer 17

-experienced investors began to withdraw their money from the stock market due to expecting prices to fall, causing large proportions of normal people to “panic sell”
-as the stock market was already artificially inflated, the entire market crashed

Question 18

How Wall Street Crash turned into the Great Depression

Answer 18

-banks were unable to pay back people’s savings as they had invested it into the stock market, which had crashed
- reduction in consumer spending, caused newer industries to struggle to find buyers for their products
- businesses struggled, as they couldn’t get loans from banks, caused US economy to tank

Question 19

Impact of Depression on cities

Answer 19

-businesses were hit hard, and cut wages/ fired employees, resulted in high unemployment rates in cities.

Question 20

Impact of Depression on countryside/farms

Answer 20

• caused already low prices of goods to fall even more (60% worse than 1929)
• farmers were unable to pay off mortgages and other debts, which caused more than a third of them to lose their land
• environmental crisis ruined harvest of 1930

Question 21

Hoover’s Reputation

Answer 21

• Hoover faced lots of criticism during and after the depression.
• many Americans believed he had not taken enough action to help them
  -Hoover believed in a laissez-faire approach, however he understood that the crisis was so great that action was needed

Question 22

Bonus Marchers

Answer 22

• 20,000 people who marched to Washington DC in 1932, camped across the river from the capitol
• made up of First World War veterans who wanted their bonuses earlier
  -Hoover was against the idea, but offered $100,000 for the journey’s back.

Question 23

1932 Election

Answer 23

• Democrat FDR was elected as president
• won by a vast majority, and had a democratic congress as well
• advertised a ‘new deal’ to solve the Great Depression

Question 24

100 Days

Answer 24

• FDR formed the brain trust, a group of government officials who advised him on new deal policies
• Spoke to ordinary American citizens over radio about the policies he was going to implement, encouraging people to feel that he was on their side
• partly resolved the financial crisis by closing all banks for 4 days and only letting the financially sound banks reopen

Question 25

Second New Deal

Answer 25

• A second new deal occurred after the impact from the first one had slowed
• included new alphabet Agencies such as the WPA
• aimed to; provide work for unemployed, provide for old during retirement, support workers in industry and improve their rights, help the rural poor get their own work

Question 26

Assessing the New Deal

Answer 26

• introduced many different measures to help resolve the problems that the Great Depression had caused
• was rather successful in doing so, providing relief, reform, and recovery in many different areas of the country and people’s lives.

Question 27

Opposition to the New Deal

Answer 27

• Supreme Court; majority of 9 judges that didn’t support FDR’s political views and had the power to stop new laws from being passed
• ## Republican Party; after winning lots of seats in the 1938 congress election, republicans managed to block new spending and cut relief programme spending, effectively causing the new deal to come to a stop