Theme 1 Flashcards
What did President Wilson do?
Took the USA into war without consulting League of nations, he did not respect the traige of power in federal america, hard to speak to
Change of presidency and what followed?
Due to Wilson’s failures, there was a change in presidency, Harding took control.
He promised a return back to normal, the traditional american way was to return.
A big part of this was to place tariffs on all foreign goods to encourage the population to buy American. EG there was a higher tariff on Fordney-Mccumber products which allowed people to buy the american version.
Isolationism became a concept, this was America’s way of steering clear of any war as they had to focus on themselves, they were to remain cordial with other countries however, not directly involved.
An example of Isolationism is restricting the amount of immigrants that came into the country, in 1920, the amount of immigrants was restricted to 150,000 but later revised to 357,000 in 1924
The red scare 1919-1920
The red scare was influenced by a communist takeover in the USSR government in 1917. This shocked the world especially USA as communism and capitalism were in active conflict. Revolution encouraged people to go against their capitalist bosses, it produced hostility around USA. Communist party america, communist labour party estbalished who worked on sending the msg thru phamphlets and more. there were 3600 strikes, about 4 million strikers.
Rugged Individualism and laissez faire and Hoover
People to survive by themselves and their own hard work, people were beginning to get weaker due to the govt dependency. Hoover wanted to minimise this. Links to LF - minimal govt intervention. allows businesses to regulate themselves and their hours and wages.
The great depression
1929, wall street crash, stock markets gone bust. unemployment rose and hoover did nothing for 18 months as he thought it would go away like previous ones. 15 million people were unemployed by 1933
Underlying problems- Trade
The protectionist policy of the repub govt along with higher tariffs on exported goods caused conflict with other trading countries like Europe. They also put high tariffs on USA goods thus buying any american product was discouraged, hence this affected the manufacturing industry. products piled up in warehouses as no sale thus no profit.
stock market speculation?
buying stocks and shares was encouraged however when the profit slowed, they abused the system. they began borrowing money on credit from banks thus no money was left in the banks. harder for other poeple, harder for the US economy
Farming problems
there was an unequal dist of wealth where farmers in north carolina earned 10% of those in cali. 1929- borrowed money from banks which was $1000million there was no way of repaying.
lack of regulation
there was very little regulation on the economy this meant that over speculation and consumer borrowing was not dampened down enough. american banks were not as integrated,they banked alone, thus when individual banks fell, they did too
unequal dist of wealth
60% of americans population earned below 2000 annually. wealthy made up of 50% of the pop, 5% earned top 1/3 of personal income.
impact of the great depression?
unemplpyment, people sacked, lack of consumer confidence, lack of confidence in the presidency
how was the great depression dealt with by hoover
laissez faire was not working thus other approaches needed to be experimented. he asked private wealthy companies to make donations. he set up the president’s emergency committee in 1929 to help the poor find work, temporary organisations. he set up the federal farmers board to help farmers sell their products.
Bonus army?
after the war, veterans were given a payment for their service, this was a bonus to any other payments that they had. this money was to be accessed in 1945 however, when the depression hit people demanded for their money. the bank and givt refused causing a massive uproar. in 1932, 150,000 to 200,000 marched to washington, met with tear gas and violence by the police.
republicans losing votes and democrats being favoured?
due to the poor handling of the economic crisis, people began to lose faith in the republicans. democrats being favoured more in public and they also began to gain more seats in the senates. 1931, they had a more seats in the house of representatives.
why did repub lose in the 1930’s election?
president emergency committee was too overwhelmed, it had a lack of support.
unemployment went from 4.6 million to 14 million
repubs had no other suitable candidate than hoover reapplying.
The character of Roosevelt
communicating well, well liked in govt and senates, had a good rela with public, fireside chats, made use of technology urging people to buy radios to listen in, balancing the economy. very charismatic, restored faith in the presidency that had been lost due to Hoover
