1. What were the causes of the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression? Causes of the stock market crash would be over speculation, which is buying and selling stock without realizing the risk. This creates a demand for a piece of paper and makes the price go up and the stock is worth more than it should be. Buying on margin which is buying stocks on credit, where you pay a down payment and then borrow the rest. Stocks become more overpriced than they should be and it led to unbalanced market. Using credit which is buying an item you don’t have money for. The richer got richer and the poor got poorer. People borrowed more than they could pay back and the banks kept the interest rates down thinking it would help, but it didn’t. Causes for the Great Depression would be using credit, buying an item you don’t have money for, the stock market crash, helping pay for Germany’s damages in WWI, farming crisis, where the farmers were making more than they could sell. People were saving their money instead of spending it so businesses couldn’t make any money
2. What impact did the stock market crash and Great Depression have on the lives of people in the United States?
Farming- farmers were making more crops than they could sell. People in the city weren’t able to pay for bills and were losing electricity until eventually their houses were foreclosed and they had to live in Hoovervilles, which were group of shacks made of tin or cardboard or whatever they could find in public areas like parks. Soup kitchens provided little to no cost meals. Banks started foreclosing and people ran to the banks to take their money out before hand, but their money wasn’t there. FDR made a bank holiday so banks could close and fix the problems and then re-open. Women started working more to help support the family. They would depend on other women to watch their children. Some people thought the women were taking jobs from the men, when really they were just trying to help support the family.
3. What did the United States government do to help alleviate the problems the Great Depression brought to our country?
Hoover believed in the trickle-down theory where if you help the rich they can provide more jobs for the poor and it would eventually help the middle and lower classes. He created the RFC, which supplied money to banks, insurance companies and railroads.
FDR created the two New Deals. The first one was to help businesses, banks, railroads, industry, and farming. The second was to help individual people. The FDIC gave the president control over exchange rates and all the banking transactions. This also meant if the bank were to fail, people would not lose their life-savings
Some New Deal acts and groups created were CCC-boys between 18-25 worked in planting trees, building buildings, FERA provided federal grants for relief purposes. AAA raised prices of crops to stimulate the economy. SSA provided federal cash assistance for widows, orphans, children without fathers in the home, and the disabled. Civil Works administration hired people for construction projects and improved buildings and bridges. Federal Securities Act made the stock market a safe place for investment.
4. What long lasting impact did the Great Depression have on the US and world?
The US were providing payments to Germany to help pay for their war damages, but when the depression hit the US the payments reduced and this led to the economic downfall of Germany, which then led to WWII. FDIC, which is if the bank failed the people would still not lose their money, is still around today and provides the same services. FHA is around today also. This program provided insurance loans to people who were buying or building a house. This was to help the unwealthy people. Social Security which aids the blind, deaf, disabled, and dependent children is still around today.
5. What were the causes of WWII?
The treaty of Versailles angered Germany. Germany was to give back the land they had taken in WWI. The UN didn’t have a military so when Hitler was rising to power and asking to take over these little countries, they wouldn’t be able to stop him so they let him. Finally everyone had enough when Hitler invaded Poland without permission.
The way US got involved with WWII was when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
6. What impact did the United States have on WWII?
The US was a big impact on the WWII. We produced more good than the Allied powers combined. We wouldn’t have made so many goods if it wasn’t for the women who took over the men’s’ jobs as they left for war. People also started saving products by rationing-which provided minimum necessities to everyone. Hollywood provided entertainment to keep people’s minds off of the war. They also promoted to buy war bonds and support the war and its soldiers. Another big factor was the atomic bombs. This was the first use of nuclear warfare. This also turned the war around and had the Allies win.
7. What were the goals for the US during the Cold War?
The US wanted to promote an open market for the US goods to prevent another depression. They also wanted to promote democracy throughout the world, especially in Asia and Africa. Also a big thing was to stop communism.
8. What were some of the major events that took place during the Cold War?
-Berlin Blockade/airlift- The blockade was when Stalin tried to push democracy out of Berlin. He wanted all of Berlin to be communist. So the communists started to put up a blockade and tried to keep others from leaving and tried to run us out of town. The airlift was when Stalin set up that blockade, the US/Allies, took helicopters and planes and airlifted supplies over to the communist people because they werent allowed to leave to receive the supplies they needed.
Cuban Missile Crisis- This was when we were scared the Soviets were putting WMDs in Cuba for a close range launch. Some US planes took pictures and found out that Cuba had WMD. So for 13 days we threatened the Soviets to take out the missiles or we would invade Cuba. .Well finally a conclusion was made where if the Soviets took out their missiles, we would not invade Cuba.
Red Scare/McCarthyism- McCarthyism is where someone is accused of being communists without enough evidence supporting it. Joseph McCarthy was the person who said he had a list of communists in the US. He started attacking many different people from Hollywood, then later from the army and falsely accused people of being communist.
Space Race-This was a race between the US and the Soviet Union to see who could go to space the quickest. Soviet Union made it to space first, but we were the first on the moon, even though there are many conspiracies. In 1989 the Challenger blew-up. After words the US and Soviet Union started to work together. The International Space Station was created. We now use Russia in order to get into space.
Bay of Pigs- The Bay of Pigs was the invasion of Cuba. The CIA trained the anti-Castro Cubans to invade and overthrow Castro. We didn’t help because we thought the domestic people would help over throw Castro. This was not a successful mission. We were supposed to provided air support, but JFK said not to and we backed off. The Cuban troops were caught and then some were killed.
Berlin Wall- Stalin didn’t want the democracy part of Berlin to get in to the communist side and take it down, so he built a wall to pretty much keep the people in and others out. If you were caught going over the wall you would be shot. Finally Soviet Union decided that it wasn’t worth it anymore and let people do what they wanted and before you knew it, the Berlin wall was down.
End of the Cold War
9. Why did the US go to war in Korea and Vietnam and what were outcome of those wars?
Korea- Korean war was known as the forgotten war. After WWII, Korea was split into the North and the South. The North was communist and the South was Democratic. The US withdrew troops from South Korea and after that the North invaded the South and pushed them to the tip of the South. The UN, which was made up mostly of US troops, got involved and pushed the North to China. China then believed we were trying to invade so China helped the North pushed the South and the UN/US back to the original line. Fighting continued there until an armistice was signed and the fighting stopped. Korea is still split into two today.
Vietnam- After WWII, the French wanted to hold on to Vietnam. A war broke out between the French and the Communist and the US sent money and supplies to the French. After that Vietnam split into the North vs. South. When Johnson was president he sent troops over to help. IN 1968 the TET offensive, which was a major offensive attacking major cities in the South. The US government kept saying the war was almost over, when in reality it wasn’t. Nixon promised to pull us out of the war. At the end of the war and when the US withdrew, the North invaded the South and all of Vietnam became communist.
10. How did the Cold War come to an end?
The US won the Cold War because we had close ties with our allies and the USSR didn’t. China started siding with us in 1972 and the Soviet Union economy was in shambles whereas the US was flourishing. Gorbachev also took blame for the Cold war and admitted the Soviets mistakes. The communist system also failed.
11. Know these major major post-Cold War Events:
-JFK Assassination JFK was in a car with the top down in a parade in Dallas, Texas. In the middle of the parade, JFK was shot in the neck and then again in the head, which was the cause of death. The person responsible for this was Lee Harvey Oswald, who was later caught at a theatre and was taken to prison. In an interview he said he was just a scapegoat, which is someone who is blamed for someone else’s wrongdoing. Later he was shot by Ruby who was a strip club owner with Mafia ties. The assassination led to many different conspiracies.
-Watergate- Watergate was a hotel in D.C and 5 men broke into the Democratic Headquarters that was stationed there. The men broke in to find dirt on the Democratic Party, so Nixon can run against the man who he would easily win against. Two reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, followed the case and revealed that the case is more than what people thought. Nixon downplayed it and said that he had earned everything he got.
-Iran Hostage Crisis- The Iran Hostage Crisis is when 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979-January 20, 1981. A group of Islamic Students and militants took over the Embassy of the US in support of the Iranian Revolution. Carter, who was president at the time, was blamed for trying not to free them. The Shaw went to the US because of his medical problems. Ayatollah wouldn’t release the Americans unless the US handed over the Shaw, which we didn’t. When the Shaw died, this lead to the releasing of the Americans.
-Persian Gulf War(1991) On August 2nd, 1990 , Iraq invaded Kuwait. This started because of the oil problems between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Operation Desert Shield was where troops were sent to Saudi Arabia. We were afraid that Iraq would invade S.A for their oil. Operation Desert Storm was where we invaded Kuwait and defeated Iraq, which led to Kuwait being free.
-9-11-4 airplanes were hijacked by the al-Qaeda terrorist group who was led by Osama bin Laden. 2 of the four planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, which later did fall down killing many people. The 3rd plane crashed into the Pentagon, not doing as much damage but did take out a side of the building. The 4th plane was on its way to somewhere in D.C when the passengers on the plane tried to take back over the plane, which ended up crashing into a field. After this terrible situation, the US tried to figure out who was responsible and everyone, Democrat and Republican, came together for about a year to solve this mess. Eventually Obama did find bin Laden and he was killed.
-War in Afghanistan- We went to war with Afghanistan because the Taliban allowed al- Qaeda to train and practice their and that was where the US believed Osama bin Laden was hiding. Obama planes to get the troops out in 2014.
-War in Iraq- We thought Hussein had WMDs and we sent over inspectors to try to find those weapons. Hussein kept putting it off until the last minute and then we invaded, but we didn’t find any weapons. Hussein was later caught and hanged. George Bush also used waterboarding, which Obama then declared that as inhuman. Obama also got us out of the war in 2011.
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