Q1: What were the causes of the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression?
SM
Over speculation- They are in it for a shorter term; they want a quick profit from buying stock. They drive stock prices up. They weren’t
Overproduction of goods
Buying on margin- caused more common people to get into the stock market
Uneven distribution of wealth
Too much borrowing from banks
Stock prices were grossly inflated, didn’t have real value
Federal Reserve increased interest rates- set up 12 federal banks around the country. It backs up banks when they lose money. Right at the end of the 20’s, they started raising interest rates and it led to people stop borrowing and buying and it crashed.
Lack of government regulation
2. What impact did the stock market crash and Great Depression have on the lives of people in the United States?
Stock Market Crash:
- People lose money
- Banks fail
- Businesses close
- Unemployment increases- people quit spending money
- Spreads to other countries
Great Depression:
- New Deal programs start- the government gets much larger
- Deficit spending starts- government started spending more money than we took in; nobody wants to cut people of work or raise taxes.
- The new deal creates many organizations that are still around today-social security, welfare, FDIC, SEC
- It brought about the military dictators like Hitler
- Older generations lost trust in banks and don’t spend as much
- Fascist, military and communist dictators come to power throughout the world.
Q3: What did the United States government do to help alleviate the problems the Great Depression brought to our country?
During the Hoover presidency
- He initiated the Hoover Dam. Made several attempts to end GD but they all failed.
- Hoover dam= made many jobs, prevented floods, provide electricity that the government could tax and make money on, helped prevent floods to help farmers.
- He stopped immigrants and kind of kicked them out so that more Americans could have jobs.
- He lowered taxes
4. What long lasting impact did the Great Depression have on the US and world?
- Families = marriages were put off or divorces were put off because it was too expensive. Birth rates dropped because it was too expensive. Family income lowered. Some families responded positively and grew stronger but others fell apart and separated.
- The Greatest Generation = generation of people who suffered during the depression and then many right after had to go fight in WWII. Lived during two very tough times.
- Living Conditions = homeless were worse off than Hoovervilles; just lived on newspapers and benches etc.
- Jobs= women were fired because it was believed they were taking jobs away from the men. Jobs were extremely essential.
5. What were the causes of WWII
1. Pearl Harbor
2. Nationalism
3. Militarism
4. imperialism
5. alliances
Q6:What impact did the United States have on WWII?
- They made more supplies for the war than any other country
- We had a stronger army.
- The war ended just months after we entered.
- The sleeping giant was awoken
7. What were the goals for the US during the Cold War?
Stop communism and domino effect
Domino Theory (Effect)- Existed between 1950s & 80s- US Gov't philosophy that if one country went to communism they all would like a domino effect- Soviet Union to Eastern Europe to China to North Korea
Q8: What were some of the major events that took place during the Cold War?
- Berlin Blockade/airlift
- Germany was still split from WW2 agreement; Berlin was the capital located in East Germany (Soviets) and it was also split east and west Berlin
- We got goods into and out of that city by a direct freeway between us and west Berlin
- The soviets (east side) didn't like this because we were entering their area and Soviets didn't like it because they didn't have total control over what was supposed to be their area.
- West Berlin stopped stopped trading with us because they didn't want war
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- It started because United States had missiles in Turkey pointing at the the Soviets; the soviets then put missiles in Cuba pointing at us
- 13 day standoff
- Compromise- The Resolution = the soviets would pull their missiles out of Cuba and we would take our out of Turkey (we kept that on the down low about taking our missiles out). We also promised we would never invade Cuba.
- Red Scare/McCarthyism
- From early 50's; red meaning communism
- Everybody feared of becoming communists; everybody (high or low power) was being accused of communism
- People were taken to trial and either way (whether they admitted to it or denied it) people thought they were communists so it was almost better just to say you are and naming other people's name to put the spotlight on someone else.
- McCarthy said he had a briefcase full of peoples names that were communists so he was very well liked by the people although nobody ever saw inside the briefcase
- HUAC- went after people in Hollywood that they thought would have communist influence and made them continue their career in other countries outside of the United States
- Space Race
- Against the Russians
- Russians got Sputnik in the sky before we did
- Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space and from Russia
- Science and math were pushed in school after Sputnik was sent to space
- US was the first moon landing
- Louis Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin
- MIR- the rendezvous between Russia and the US
- Sally Ride was the first female in space from America
- Ended up in front of Russia in the end
Bay of Pigs under Kennedy the CIA trained people from Cuba to overthrow Castro, the leader, and it failed miserably and was a huge embarrassment for Kennedy.
- April 17, 1961
- Goal: Overtake Fidel Castro and the government because he made his country communist
- 1300 exiles (with U.S. supplies and weapons) invaded the Bahi’a de Cochinos(The Bay of Pigs)
- It was evident they were going to lose to Castro’s army, but the U.S. decided not to send the Air Force to help out
- 90 exiles died; the rest were taken as prisoners.
- Kennedy/U.S was embarrassed and blamed for not doing more to help out and for letting it happen in the first place
- Private U.S. groups later ransomed for the prisoners.
- This caused fear by Cuba that would try and overtake their island; distrust between countries
- Berlin Wall
- After WW2 Germany was separated into 4 zones and in the city of Berlin it was split nto communist and democrats
- This wall was built in order to keep the east(communists) out of the west (democratic) and stop them from fleeing in the west area
- The soviets didn't want to build this wall because of how it would look; it would make them look like bad guys keeping their people enclosed in the wall.
- 100 miles long and 12 feet tall with barbed wire
9.Why did the US go to war in Korea and Vietnam and what were outcome of those wars?
- stop communism
- stop the domino effect
- Nixon called for the "vietnamization" of the war
- means we did to pull out of Vietnam and allow the vietnamese people to fight for themselves now
- "Peace with honor" - we want peace to insure and we want honor when we leave
- Gradually pulled US troops out and train the ARVN to take our place in fighting the north
- 13 days later, on January 27, The Paris Peace Accords were signed which officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam conflict
Q10: How did the Cold War come to an end?
- Reagan called the Soviets the Evil Empire; supported any anti-communist movements worldwide
- met a lot with soviet leader
- we had close ties with our Allies and the USSR didn't
- China started siding with us after 1972
- Soviets economy was in shambles whereas the US's was flourishing
- huge deficit
- high inflation
- corruption
- social problems
- shortage of basic needs (food,housing)
- the strong anti-communist presidency of reagan
- Gorbachev's willingness for change and reform
- glasnost and perestroika- more democracy & capitalism
- admitted Soviet mistakes
- took blame for the Cold War
- communist system had failed
- allowed Eastern Europe to do what they wanted
- Arms Reduction Talks
- SALT, INF, Reagan- Gorbachev meetings
- He opposed detente (worldwide peace); upset the balance of "leave-each-there-alone"
- He spent tons of money on the military; he started the missile defensive set-up to protect us from nuclear bombs
- He had many meetings with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev which helped bring an end to the Cold War
- Soviet mistakes
- invasion of Afghanistan
- ignoring social concerns
- spent everything on military
11. Know these major major post-Cold War Events:
- -JFK Assassination
- November 22, 1963 In Dallas, Texas in the ELite Plaza on a campaign trip
- Assassinate= Lee Harvey Oswald by a rifle
- Governor of Texas and secret service man were wounded
- Kennedy was pronounced dead in Parkland Hospital shortly after brought there
- Later Oswald was killed people going into court by Ruby
- Harvey was in the marines (sharp shooter; means he has a really good shot)
- Harvey has defection to the USSR
- -Watergate
- Watergate was an office/hotel complex in D.C. - home to the democratic national headquarters (for election campaigns)
- 5 people were arrested for breaking and entering and then Nixon said he didn't know anything about this; said they were getting dirt on the democrats- were trying to bug the phones
- Caught the 2nd time, put tape in the door the wrong way
- Two Washington Post reporters investigated it; why were they wearing suits? why were they bugging the phones? why did they have 100 dollars in their pocket?
- criminals were Nixon's former employees
- -Iran Hostage Crisis
- Between the U.S. and Iran; on November 4, 1979 the Iran took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
- Before this in 1977, there was an Iran Revolution
- Islamic government over threw the pro-US government and Ayatollah Khomeini overtook as leader
- this was the group that caused problems/dislikes with the United States and took the Americans hostage
- We attempted to rescue them, but it failed miserably with 8 American deaths, one Iran civilian dead, and destruction of 2 aircraft's
- Purpose: we had "The Shaw" (their previous pro-U.S. leader) in our country so Iran wanted him back, so they wanted a trade. They would give us the hostages if we give them their previous leader (we didn't make this trade)
- We got them back when Iraq invaded Iran and they were desperate and made a trade
- Got them back January 20, 1981
- -Persian Gulf War(1991)
- began when Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 (Sudan Husein was the Iraq leader)
- Purpose: Iraq felt Kuwait was stealing their oil and they wanted better access to the Persian Gulf
- United Nations then ordered Iraq to pull out of Kuwait (they refused)
- Operation Desert Shield- we send 1000 of troops to Saudi Arabia in order to prevent an invasion their and to threaten Sudan Husein- 1990
- we never too out troops so this may have led to 9/11
- bombed them repeatedly
- Operation Desert Storm (after they still didn't pull out) = we started bombing their troops and they invaded Kuwait so we were trying to free them
- won within a month
- most of the world against Iraq
- Results: Coalition Force Victory, Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, destruction of Iraqi/ Kuwait infrastructure
- Coalition- US- 482 dead, Iraq- 20,000-35,000
- Easy victory; Iraq pulled out; we never pulled out of Saudi Arabia
- The Islamic people felt we were invading their area and Al Qaeda etc starts seeing us as the enemy not as liberators; this kind of fueled 9/11
- During 1990's-2003: put a no-fly zone on Iraq in certain areas, sent in weapons inspectors into Iraq (Weapons of Mass Destruction WMD)
- Mainly went to war in 2003 because Bush was tired of the cat and mouse games
- -9-11- 4 airplanes, 2 of the airplanes were hijacked the planes and crashed them into the towers and they fell. One plane was hijacked and flew into the pentagon. The 4th was hijacked but the passenger got control and crashed in a field. Alkida was responsible. We took a lot of security measures! One positive thing was the whole United States came together!
- -War in Afghanistan- went in a result of 911, where the Taliban government was, that's where the Alkidas were allowed to train there. Taliban wasn't gonna let us in so we invaded! We hope to be out of Afghanistan by 2014. Made unpopular because of the Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse pictures. We got involved because of 9-11 they were stationed in Afghanistan.
- -War in Iraq- 2 years later, We were getting Info the Saddam Hussein was getting Weapons in mass destruction, We had weapon inspectors to see in he was using weapons, he kicked them out let them back in, and President says let them in or we will have a consequence, and we invaded. We pulled out all the statues, and he flew and airplane holding a sign! We captured Saddam Hussein!! Then he was convicted and he was hung. He sent the Surge!!! President Obama ended the War in 2011.
Comments