1. What were the causes of the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression?
Causes of the crash: uneven sharing of wealth (top 1% of the US controlled the money.) wages couldnt keep up with the production, heavy increase of gambling and buying stocks. The business cycle- contraction, expansion, peak, recession. tight money policy- cut off credit and raise intrest rates (forces people to buy less which makes the companies lose money and people would lose jobs) Buying on margin- buying on credit for stocks. giant gap between the rich and the poor. overexpansion of buying on credit. banks used peoples money to invest in the stock market. debt- quit spending money. overproduction of farm goods, prices lowered, farmers lost money. gov't used a laissez-faire approach, stayed out of all of the businesses- didnt regulate the stock market. overspeculation: led to stock prices overpriced. gov't did not regulate the stock market in the 20s.
great depression- period of time were the stock market ccrashed and caused an economic crisis. Stock market crash in 1929, banks were failing, reduction in purchasing, american economic policy with europe- tarriffs were created on goods from europe (record high) europe also put tarriffs on their products- used to protect american companies but didn't help. eliminated trade around the world. , drought conditions- farmers couldnt produce anything, everyone left the region of texas, kansas, nevada. also known as the dust bowl. Reduction in purchases- people lost their jobs so they couldnt buy things, businesses werent getting money so they had to raise prices and lay people off, then more people couldnt buy things- vicious cycle. taxes benefitted the rich which made them richer and the poor go poorer.
2. What impact did the stock market crash and Great Depression have on the lives of people in the United States?
Children: would write to president for help.. shoes, clothing, money
Boxcar kids- children that ran from home and lived on railroads. Child labor laws formed. Girls dressed like boys. Ran from home
women: Men and women were affected differnt. Men felt like failures. women felt as if their household jobs were enhanced. not a lot of money to live off.
Men: went around looking for jobs. lost self esteem. left their families alot and in a 1940's survey 1.5 million men left their wives.
families: Marriages were put off because they couldn't afford it and same with divorce and birth rates dropped because not enough money and income dropped severely. some families it made them stronger and others i tore them apart.
farmers: corn prices dropped 5 to 10 percent a bushel and they were burning their corn for heat. they lived off their land and got all food from their. they did a lot of bartering to things they need. children wore flour sack clothing
wealthy people: they weren't affected. 40% of the country were not affected and they would try to help out the poor. they didn't notice the suffering. some lost a lot of money. the bragged about their wealth.
Living conditions: hoovervilles- a town made from any kind of material found. Homeless were living anywhere they could in parks and under news papers.
jobs: white men mostly got the jobs. women were thought to be stealing jobs from men so women would get fired and men would get the jobs. You had to have a job to live. 25% unemployment.
3.) What did the United States government do to help alleviate the problems the Great Depression brought to our country?
The New Deal was FDR’s way of trying to alleviate the problems caused by the Great Depression. His goal was RRR-relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform. There were actually two different new deals. The first focused mainly on helping businesses and banks get back on their feet. The second focused on getting the American people back on their feet. Before FDR became president, Hoover set up one thing that did carry over into the New Deal. Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was a program set up where the federal government gave money to state or local governments in the hopes that they would distribute out the money to where it was needed and better the country. This was a big example of trickle-down theory. The New Deal also established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which tried to help young guys, ages 18-25, who came from poor families, and give them odd jobs. It paid $30 a month and $25 would go to the family and the boys got to keep $5. Other policies that helped the unemployed were the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) and the Public Works Administration (PWA). FERA created welfare and provided work for people. PWA created many jobs as possible in a bunch of different varieties. Mainly construction jobs building schools and hospitals. The Emergency Banking Relief Act was a program where FDR would close a bank or banks down, restructured the banks, and reopened them to the people. He would assure the people that these banks that were reopened could be trusted with their money. The Agricultural Adjustment Act paid farmers to plant less and destroy crops in order to help farmers with crop prices. The Federal Securities Act made the Stock Market a safer place for people to invest their money.
4. What long lasting impact did the Great Depression have on the US and world?
The banks became more strict, enforced by Securites and Exchange Com,mission (kept the market secure) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (protects peoples money in the bank)
crime rates rose, mass migration, social security act passed
5. What were the causes of WWII?
Germany was invading and taking over countries of German ethnicity. At a conference Hitler said he would stop. He then invaded Poland and WWII essentially began.
6. What impact did the United States have on WWII?
We made many supplies to fund the war
Supplies win war, We had a good military, Homeland helped a lot, women started working in factories, Nuclear weapons which caused Japan to end the war
7. What were the goals for the US during the Cold War?
Promote open markets for US goods to prevent another depression. Promote democracy around the world, especially in Africa and Asia. Stop the Spread of Communism.
8. What were some of the major events that took place during the Cold War?
-Berlin Blockade/airlift: After WWII, Germany was split into 4 zones. The East was controlled by the Soviet Union and therefore became communist. The West was free and controlled by US, Great Britain, France, etc. Berlin, the capital, also got slip in half, communist vs. free. Well the west was giving supplies (food and such) to the west side of Berlin. Stalin wanted to cut off those supplies so he set up a blockade to try and prevent it. This could have actually been considered an act of war if they hadn’t found a way around it. The blockade didn’t really do much because the west just began to drop supplies in from airplanes (the airlift) and Stalin couldn’t shoot them down, otherwise it would have really started a war, so he called off the blockade.
-Cuban Missile Crisis: Nikita Khrushchev, leader of USSR, placed long-range missiles in Cuba because they felt threatened by the US having missiles in Turkey. One of our U-2 planes got pictures of the weapons being built in Cuba and reported back. For 13 days the US and Soviet Union were on the brink of war but then they finally reached a compromise. The Soviets would take their missiles out of Cuba if we promised to never take control of Cuba. Also, on the side, an agreement was reached that, 6 months later, the US would take their missiles out of Turkey.
-Red Scare/McCarthyism: Joseph McCarthy was really the start of the whole communist scare in America. He put the idea in people’s minds that anyone could be communist (or a red), your next door neighbor, Hollywood stars (they were hit hard and many left to go make movies in other countries), politicians, anyone really. He was pretty crazy actually and even said that he had a briefcase that contained the names of hundreds of people who were confirmed communists. This briefcase was never shown but I think it’s pretty safe to say he was bluffing. Eventually, the whole scare was ended when people realized he was crazy by accusing the president of being communist. He went too far and was taken down.
-Space Race: A race between the Soviet Union and the USA to see who would get to the moon first. It was a very heated race because, after the launch of Sputnik (the unmanned satellite) by the Soviets and the first man in space (Yuri Gagarin), the US felt as though we were falling behind the Soviets. In more things than just the moon landing. There was a huge push in education (math and science mainly) because the US needed engineers, and really good ones. The US was the first to reach the moon in 1969. Lance Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had fulfilled JFK’s promise to have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. NASA was created in 1958 to deal with space.
-Bay of Pigs: In 1961, the US wanted to invade Cuba but knew that such an action would look bad: a world superpower invading this little country. So the US government rounded up a bunch of Cuban exiles and had them invade the country in the hope that the rest of the Cubans would rise up and revolt with them. They didn’t and all of the exiles were either captured or killed. The US had promised them air support but had not followed through with their promise and the Cuban exiles were very, very upset with the US. So the exiles spoke out to the press about who was actually behind the invasion and it was a huge embarrassment for the US government, particularly JFK.
-Berlin Wall: a wall that the Soviets built to keep the people in the east pretty much trapped there because most were fleeing to the west. They didn’t want to build the wall because their whole theory, that the people would choose communism (everyone’s equal but in poverty) over democracy (freedom), was being proved wrong. The people were choosing freedom and so they felt they had to build the wall. Eventually, when the Soviets realized that no one was going to choose communism, they let the wall be torn down by the people. The soldiers, guards, and government didn’t do anything to stop it, they just let it happen.
9. Why did the US go to war in Korea and Vietnam and what were outcome of those wars?
War in Korea
North Korea invaded South Korea and the United Nations decided to get involved in the war because we were obligated to because of the Truman Doctrine. When the US got involved, we pushed North Korea all the way to China, who then became afraid that they were going to be invaded. Chine then pushed US troops and Korean troops back. The war is known as the Back and Forth War. Cease fire was signed but the war still carries on to some degree. We currently still have troops there.
War in Vietnam
We began involvement in the Vietnam War to stop the spread of communism.
TET offensive made the war very unpopular, First very public war
10. How did the Cold War come to an end?
Gorbachev was open to change, He and Reagan met, Soviet economy was bad, soviets were in a war in Afghanistan.
11. Know these major post-Cold War Events:
-JFK Assassination – Harvard Lee Oswald killed him while riding in a car on the way to a political party; he was shot twice and conspiracies say that there was more than one person who did it. Later Oswald was shot and killed (Possible attackers:
-Watergate- Nixon’s Republican party broke into Democratic party and Nixon denied it
-Iran Hostage Crisis- Iran held 52 Americans for 444 days because we had their “Shaw” and they wanted him back. They ended up giving them back when they went to war with Iraq and were desperate.
-Persian Gulf War(1991)- Iran invaded Kewait
Iraq- Sudam Husan; we thought they had WMD
-War in Afghanistan- Bin Laden; 9-11
-9/11- 4 planes (2 towers, pentagon, pennsylvania) Al Queda terrorists attack
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