USA DEPTH STUDY Flashcards
economic boom
a period of time when the economy improves quickly and standard of living goes up
what factors were the economic boom based on?
– WW1
America had rarely been involved in the first world war, so its workforce and troops didnt suffer any damage. they had money and booming industries for selling weapons, food, etc.
– the car
pioneered by henry ford, and it was a new method that allowed mass production at cheap rates, and expanded the automobile industry: the first mass produced car was the Model T and was priced at only $259 and one car was produced every 10 seconds.
– automobile industry
cars became a necessity and high demand meant more production, which also stimulated the production of other industries. like petrol and glass that was used to make cars
– electricity
it was cheap and effect, by 1930 35% of households had electricity, but increased to 60% by 1929l prices dropped but demand increased.
- technological developments
appliances like refrigerators, radios and washing machines became common in households, mass production was able to satsfy high demand, electricity was able to cheaply power these applainces and factories produced them
why did some industries prosper while others did not?
unemployment: after ww1, million of troops were left without jobs, although some found work in growing industries most did not, production rates decreased as exports did so the need for workers was lower, these people were the poor whites, african americans and other people of the immigrant communities
textiles: new synthetic materials like nylon became popular since they were cheap to manufacture, this reduced demand for natural materials like cotton and wool, olde industries that grew these natural materals went into crisis because of the decreasing demand
coal: the developemtn of electricity reduced the demand for previously used fuels like coal, even thought coal still powered many homes and factories, electricity was cheaper so most of america turned to electricity and the coal industry began to fall
why did agriculture not share in prosperity?
- overproduction
from 1900 to 1920 while farming was doing well, more and more land was being farmed. imrpoved machinery and improved fertilises made US agriculture extremely effieciet. however, in 1920 it was producing surluses of wheat nobody needed - ceclining exports
after the war, europe imported far less food from USA, this was because europe was poor and because it was a response to US tarrifts which stopped europe from exporting to the USA
-new competitors: farmers were also sturggling againsts competiton from high effiecient candian wheat producers
-falling prices:
prices plummeted as desperate armers tried to sell their produce, by 1921 alone most farm pprices fell by 50 per cent, and there were five times as many farm bankruptcies.
did all americans benefit from the boom?
–farmers
most farmers were replaced by new machinery, overproduction meant that there was very low demand for crops, they had competition from canadian farmers, farm labourers were fired since farmers could not afford to pay their wages snd large farms became mechanised
-black people
most lived in the south and worked as labourrers or sharecroppers, meaning they’d plant crops for people in exchange of the land, however 75% lost their farm jobs, many migrated to the north for more opportunities but faced much more discrimination, car factories and other booming industries hired low number of blakc people; some were all white.
- new immigrants
many arrived just before or after the war, they oftern took whatever work they chould find and were usually less educated, most ended up working in construction and the wages were very low and labour became increasingly mechanised so it was hard to find jobs.
what was the melting pot?
-Immigration has made America a very mixed society. By 1920, over 103 different nationalities lived there
America became known as “the melting pot” because everyone became assimilated and “stirred together” to lose their old identity and become Americans
who were the old immigrants
the first european settles that mostly came from nouthern or western europe
- briths
-germans
- scandinavians
their descendants usually had the best jobs, most money and most political power
who were the native americans?
original inhabitants of the land, they wereforced off their land from 1950 to 1890, some stayed traditional and maintained their ways of living, remaining isolated from the rest of society
southern and eastern europeans
most immmigrated to america in the late 19th century
- the polish
- thr russians
-the italians
they were escaping poverty and prosecuting in europe, jews or catholics, and were often treated very badly
black americans
they moved north to work in the lowest paid sector, they were sharecroppers, they were segregated into slum areas such as Harlem New york
native americans
the republic govt. made them to be living in reservations, the growing land was poor and many native americans suffered from poverty, poor education and ill health not suitable for farming and could not propser
Communists (red scare)
- when the new immigrants came from south and eastern europe, there was a fear of them bring communist ideas. when a series of stricked broke out in 1919, it confirmed the fears, one blast damaged the home of attorney general, mitchell palmer. the strikers were faced with arrest and suspected communists were arrested, many deported
religious introlerance
Fundamentalists - doesnt accept any religion besides theirs, they follow religion literally and their ideas clash with the constituion. Blacks, jews, catholics were considered inferior to them.
the law stated that evolution of man should not be studied in school, but he went against this and taught about charles’s dawrins evolution theory, his trial was known as the monkey trial. Fundamentalist, Jennings bRYAN, LED the prosecution
race
- the anglo saxon race was considered superior, the theory of eugenics was the belief that human race could be improved by breeding, light skinned, blond haired and blue eye people were superior
the KKK
- their hatred went wider than just black people, they hated catholics, jews, foreigners, liberals and homosexuals.
- set up in 1864 when they felt foreigners were spoiling the culture
- 5 million people became members, including many politicians and government official
- their most extreme acts were hanging people, mutilating people and lynching
- in 1925 the membership of the clan declined due to one of the klan leaders being accused of rape and murder of a woman on a train
