What Impact Did The First World War Have and How Did The Presidency Change?

Question 1

When did America enter the war?

Answer 1

1917

Question 2

Why did America enter the war? (2)

Answer 2

• After several German attacks on US shipping - The discovery that Germany was sounding out Mexico as an ally against the USA

Question 3

What was many Americans reaction to Wilson entering the war?

Answer 3

Many Americans felt that the involvement in the war had been a mistake

Question 4

What ideology did Harding, Coolidge and Hoover support?

Answer 4

Laissez-faire

Question 5

Laissez-faire:

Answer 5

Influential ideology characterised by opposition to government intervention in the economy and society

Question 6

What did Wilson want America to join?

Answer 6

The League of Nations

Question 7

What was the League of Nations?

Answer 7

An organisation formed at the end of WW1, set up for international co-operation and to help its member states to settle their differences peacefully, rather than by going to the war

Question 8

What phrase did President Harding campaign?

Answer 8

Return to ‘normalcy’

Question 9

What did many understand a return to ‘normalcy’?

Answer 9

A return to things as they had been before the war

Question 10

Short economic depression after WW1:

Answer 10

Unemployment rose and there was a lot of social discontent: protests, strikes and riots

Question 11

What were unemployment levels in 1919 and 1921?

Answer 11

1919 - 950,000
1921 - 5,010,000

Question 12

How did the post-war economic depression garner support for the return to ‘normalcy’?

Answer 12

Returning to a pre-war life would mean removing these problems

Question 13

During the Progressive Era and the war, the federal government intervened in American lives to an unprecedented extent. For example: (3)

Answer 13

• Many Americans paid federal taxes for the first time
• Legislation such as the Sedition Act (1918) gave the federal government extra powers to silence opponents of the war
• 1917, 5 million men were drafted to fight in a war in which not all of them believed

Question 14

How was isolationism implemented?

Answer 14

• 1921 Emergency Quota Act which restricted the number of immigrants coming into the country
• Between 1935 - 1939, Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts that restricted the help the USA could give to other countries if they went to war

Question 15

When was the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act?

Answer 15

1921

Question 16

Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act:

Answer 16

Tariff on imports to encourage people to ‘buy American’

Question 17

How was consumerism prospering? (2)

Answer 17

• New technology produced consumer goods far more cheaply
• Hire purchase allowed people to buy these goods over a period of time

Question 18

Harding’s slogan:

Answer 18

‘Less government in business and more business in government.’