Causes:
Stock Market Crash - Prices of the Stock Market were so high it set a record. People were buying stocks but only paying for half of it, and borrowing the rest of it. This was called buying on margin, and when people did this they were making stock prices go up, up, up.
A vicious cycle began. People lost their jobs, so they weren’t making money. Banks closed, so people had no money there too, so they couldn’t buy things. So factories were making things that people wouldn’t buy. So they weren’t making any money. And factories went out of business. So the cycle started all over again. It was just terrible.
There were higher tariffs because of the Stock Market Crash, so other countries couldn’t buy things from us, because prices were too high. And we couldn’t buy things from them, so when other countries weren’t making money, it was hurting their economy.
Farmers were growing and making too much food and stuff, and since no one in the cities had money to buy things from them, the farmers weren’t making money. They were forced to move into the cities, which were over crowded with homeless people, who lost their homes.
Effects:
Since no one had money, they couldn’t pay for their houses, so they were kicked out of their homes by the banks. They set up Hoovervilles, an insult to President Hoover because people thought he didn’t help at all. They slept with Hoover blankets which were just old newspapers. They lived in Hoover shacks made out of cardboard boxes and planks. Hoovervilles were where the homeless people went when they lost their house.
Breadlines and soup kitchens were set up to give people food to eat. Homeless people also set up carts and stands filled with fruit and selling them to make money. People stood in lines for hours just to get sugar and food.
Since men were out there trying to find jobs, hoping on trains, or standing in breadlines for food, women took over, saving food, making houses, taking care of their kids, making clothes. They were very helpful.
Speaking of children, they had the hardest time through this all. From watching their moms and dads going jobless to losing their home to having to give up their toys. They couldn’t go to school because schools had shut down, as well as hospitals, so health care was very crucial. The kids and teenagers became depressed, so they jumped on trains from town to town, trying to start over. Depression was all over, and people started committing suicide because nothing was changing.
1. Students will understand the impact the Great Depression and New Deal had on the US.
FDR set up the New Deals.
- NEW DEAL #1!!! From 1933 to 1935. (is still around today) This first New Deal was basically set up to help banks and businesses. Banks were reopened. Beer-Wine Revenue was legalized. Companies were started up to make money. Salaries of people were cut down for factories.
- New Deal #2 – From 1935 to 1938. (only set up for the Great Depression) This deal was to focus in on the people who needed help. NLRA - limits the means with which employers may react to workers in the private sector with created labor unions. - Social Security. - Sets up programs to set up Retail on price control. Bonus Bill - 1.5 million dollars to 3 million dollars to WW1 Veterans.
The new deals really helped the US get out of the Great Depression. The 3 R’s were set up to prevent and protect the US from getting into another Great Depression.
-The 3 R’s.
Relief - Immediate reaction taken to halt the economires deteroriation.
Recovery - 'pump' 'priming' Temorary programs to restart the flow of consumer demand.
Reform - Permanent programs to avoid another depression and insure citizens against economic disasters.
- Relief - Parts of the Relief Act - Bank Holiday, Federal Relief Act, Civil Work Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps.
- Recovery - Acts of Associations that put 'recovery' together - Agriculture Adjustment Act, National Industrial Recovery Act, Home Owners Loan Corps, Works Progressive Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority.
- Reform - Reform of the economics(reform the banks and the stock market) Things that put the parts of reform together - Soil Consevation Act, National Labor Relations Act, and National Labor Relations Board, Social Security Administration, Federal Deposit Corp., Securities and Exchange Commission.
2. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of WWII.
Causes:
- Because of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had lost land and islands. Germany had to pay for WW1, and they were responsible for it.
- Main Axis Powers were Germany, Japan, and Italy.
- Allied Powers were US, USSR, France, and Great Britain.
- Hitler wanted to get rid of all Jews, Arabians, Jehovah Witnesses, and made a superior race: Aryan.
- D-Day - June 6 1944. Was an airborne and amphibious attack on Nazi controlled France.
- Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941.
- Victory in Europe – V-E Day – May 8 1945.
- Germany invaded USSR to take over Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad. Failed miserablely. Was called Operation Barbarossa.
- V-J Day – Victory in Japan on Aug. 14 1945.
- We bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs. “Fatman on Nagasaki, and “Little Boy” on Hiroshima. Yalta Conference came out of this, Germany was to be broken into 4 zones.
- And Nuremburg Trials also came out. It was Nazi war crime trials after World War 2.
- In America we had Japanese Camps set up because we still didn’t trust Japan. They were forced to leave their homes. Still lived normal lives: went to school, work. Played for entertainment.
- Millions of people died because of this war.
3. Students will understand how/why the Allies won WWII.
- Women! While their lovers fought overseas, they were the ones who took over back home. Made war weapons, provided things their men needed, drove taxis, secretaries, typists, worked in factories, tested machinery, all kinds of good stuff! They even planted gardens and canned food to send to the fighters. Started WAVES - Women’s Navy. They never fought in the war.
- African Americans! Even though they were still being segregated, we needed their help. They worked in factories, fought on the front lines, flew airplanes. They pretty much did what the white males did in the war.
- Most of the time, we knew what our enemies were doing, but they had no clue what we were up to. We had ULTRA and MAGIC - deciphered codes that Germany and Japan had sent. So we knew what they were going to do.
- We built better faster stronger boats, so we could out run U-boats. We had hunter killers - they were special boats to demolish those subs.
- Selective Training and Service Act - Roosevelt had men drafted to help with the war.
- We also had this awesome man: Henry Kaiser, he owned a big ship company. We had a lot of war goods and stuff at the end of the war, more than other countries combined.
4. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Cold War.
Causes: United States was up against Soviet Union in the arms race. US wanted quality and USSR wanted quantity. We really didn’t want war because we just got done with WW2. We were democratic (freeeedom!) and they were communists(controlled). US was afraid USSR would attack us with their new nuclear weapons. Stalin was mad that US didn’t joined League of Nations and he also wanted to spread communism in his country, while we wanted to stop it. Winston Churchill gave a speech about the Iron Curtain – he wanted to separate areas controlled by USSR and Western Powers. The CIA attacked Cuba called the Bay of Pigs and it failed! Cuban Missile Crisis was when Soviets had missiles in Cuba and we wanted them to take out the weapons. It was the closest we’ve ever come to a war. USSR took their weapons out of Cuba and we took ours out of Turkey. CIS was Commonwealth of Independence States, it was an organization of many former Soviet countries.
5. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Korean Conflict.
Korea split into two – North and South Korea in 1950 to 1953 after WW2. The North was communist, and decided to invade the South in 1950. The United Nations got involved, mostly made up of US soldiers and we helped out the South because we were true anti-communists. We pushed North soldiers so far up, and so close to the border of China, that China thought we were going to invade. So then they joined the war, siding with the South, invading the North.
6. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Vietnam Conflict.
Setting: Vietnam. Year: 1950 – 1975. Characters: US, French, North and South Vietnam. We wanted to stop communism and North Vietnam wanted to be independent. Our allie, Ho Chi Minh asks independence from France. US didn’t want Vietnam to become communist because we didn’t like communism, and we thought the domino effect would come into play (other countries would start becoming communist). US really never declared war on Vietnam, but President Johnson could do whatever he wanted in Nam. Finally, there was war in 1968, escalation. My Lai Massacre was when American soldiers killed hundreds of children and old people. We needed more US soldiers, so there was draft, and how that worked was something to do on your birthday. How men got out of the draft was fleeing the country to Sweden or Canada. Claiming to be homosexual, went to college, got married, joined National Guard or Peace Corps, being rich or were medically unfit to fight (pansies). There were a lot of War protests at home – young people were really upset. Had signs that said “Make love not war”. They wondered why we were over there because we weren’t making any progress. By 1975, Vietnam became an independent communist country.
7. Students will understand the causes and effects of Afghanistan and Iraq.
- We went to war with Afghanistan because of 911, when Al Quada took over planes and flew them into the World Trade Center in 2001. Ten years later, we found the leader of the Taliban – government in charge at the time – and killed him. We are now in the process of pulling troops out of there.
- Iraq: War in 2003 because we thought they had weapons that could destroy things, but really they didn’t. We captured Saddam Hussein and was sentenced to death. We established a democratic government. And now currently have military advisors in Iraq.
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