Semester Test Blog

1. What were the causes of the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression?

uneven sharing of wealth
- still have it today
- 1% of the population controls 90% of the money in the country
- people continued borrowing money and going on credit- going into debt
- people quit buying things because they didnt have money causing businesses to lose money
wages couldn't keep up production
the business cycle
making too much or not enough products

- not enough- prices were too high
- too much- cost was low and didnt make a lot of money
shady banking, overexpansion of using credit
- people didnt have to money to pay back money
- continued to spend without thinking they had to pay back
- shady banking- took peoples money and invested it into the stock market
  - can no longer invest in the stock market
debt
- many people went into debt
  - quit spending money
- they prices were lower
- had made too much of their products
Government was using Laissez-faire approach
- very few regulations and laws in stock market
- let people do what they wanted
- let people do it themselves and didnt help

Overspeculation
- speculators- people who buy and sell stocks quickly
- stock went up because of high demand
- overinflation because of too much buying and selling
Overproduction of goods
- low profits
- companies made too many products that people weren't buying
- weren't making much money
"Buying on Margin"
- borrow money to buy stocks
- people believed stock market would never crash- permanent prosperity
- people sold stocks but still had to pay back and didnt have the money
- led to overspeculation and overpriced stocks
Uneven Distribution of Wealth
- poeple were poor and were in debt from borrowing money
- led to low profits for companies
Too much borrowing from banks due to low interest rates
- low interest rates encourage people to buy expensive things
- banks made it easy for people to borrow money
Stock Prices overpriced
Lack of gov't regulation
- pooling- rich men bought cheap stocks, pay off a newspaper guy, sold it to common people that didn't have the money
- stock prices went up
- Federal Reserve- failed in the early 30s
  - controlled interesst rates

Fed. Reserve increased interest rates

caused people to stop borrowing
people went broke

2. What impact did the stock market crash and Great Depression have on the lives of people in the United States?

Homelessness
- many mortgages on peoples homes were foreclosed and that left millions of people homeless
- lead to people building small shacks or shanty towns (hoovervilles)
Starvation and illness
- because of loss of income and jobs many peole had to go into dumpsters to find meals
- not many died from starvation but didnt get a lot of food to eat
Unemployment
- unemployment was at an all time high
  - 25% in the us
  - up to 33% in other countries
- without income, many starved to death or had to steal food
- many unemployed workers committed suicide because they had nothing
  - felt there was nothing else to live for
  - men were embaraced that they lost everything so left or committed suicide
bank failures
- peopole tried to withdraw money that wasnt there
  - had put it into the stock marke
- 40% of banks collapsed
  - about 10,000 banks or more
- 1933, people lost 140 billion dollars
Hoovervilles
- villages for the unemployed and people who lost their homes
- lived in what they had to build with
- floors were made out of dirt
- families only had one or two rooms to live in
Dust Bowl
- covered the affected areas with dirt
- reason for it was because of drought in 1934 and farmers didn't conserve the land correctly
- people had to wear masks whenever they went outside
- many people moved out west to California
- hit from the Great Plains all the way to New York

3. What did the United States government do to help alleviate the problems the Great Depression brought to our country?

The first New Deal was focused on helping businesses and banks.
It was focused on the 3 R's, relief, recovery, and reform.

Home Owner's Loan Corporation

prevented foreclosure
refinanced home mortgages.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration

Provided assistance to the unemployed and their families. ($20 million)
Provided work

The Emergency Banking Act

Reopened banks
Money was put back into the banks
Many people started using banks again

Tennessee Valley Authority

Government dams and hydroelectric plants for electric power
Hired the unemployed
Developed new fertilizers and taught farmers how to improve crop yields.

Agricultural Adjustment Administration

reduced the production of staple crops
Paid farmers to reduce the amount of crops they planted
Reduced Crop Surplus to raise prices
Over 6 million pigs were slaughtered to raise prices
A lot of people didn't like the AAA; they thought what they were doing was cruel

Farm Security Administration

Gave small farmers money in order to buy farms
Dust Bowl and Drought forced farmers off of their land
FSA provided relief for these people

Federal Crop Insurance Corporation

improved production and marketing of farm products
started "all-risk" crop insurance
guaranteed a percentage of your crops if they are damaged

Works Progress Administration (WPA)- set up a national relief agency and employed over 2 million people
Securities and Exchange Commision- regulated Wall Street
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)- reformed the economy
Social Security Act- established Social security and promised economic security for the elderly, sick, and poor
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)- hired 250,000 young men to work on rural local projects
The Indian Reorganization Act- removed the Native Americans for state courts.
This is another part to the New Deal.
This had a stronger focus on the social reform.
In April, he created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to provide jobs for unemployed people.
WPA focused more on building post offices, schools, bridges, and highways.
In July 1935 the Wagner Act was created to supervise union elections and businesses from treating the workers unfairly.
Created the Agricultural Market Act of 1929
Believed local communities should provide relief for unemployment
RFC- agency gave $2 billion to small governments and gave loans to banks, railroads, and other businesses (trickle-down theory)

4. What long lasting impact did the Great Depression have on the US and world?

Effects of the GD
- New Deal programs start-makes the US gov't much larger
- deficit spending starts
  - started spending more money than they made in 30s
    - still struggle to get out
  - had never spent more than made til now
- fascist, military and communists dictators come to power through out the world
  - japan- caused them to invade china
  - germany
  - gave dictators that were already there more power
Bonus Expeditionary Force
- guaranteed money by the gov't
- wanted money right away but gov't said no
- gov't offered jobs
- Hoover forced them out of DC with gas and tanks
- congress voted no on giving them money early

Social Security Administration

RSDI (Retirement, Survivors, Disabillity Insurance
- war veterans
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
- criteria:
  - citizenship
  - $2000 (financial resources)
  - $718 (income)
  - social security member
Medicare
Breadlines
- very few women stood in breadlines becaue men were "breadwinners"
- how a lot of people survived everyday
- everyday occurance for many people
Agricultural Adjustment Act
- people disliked it
- burnt crops
- poored out milk
- destroyed food
Deficit Spending (priming the pump)
- spending money that you dont have
- spent a lot of money to help the economy
- happens a lot now
Court Packing BIll
- FDR was upset with the Supreme Court because they declared many of his laws unconstitutional- by 1 or 2 votes
- FDR felt the Supreme Court was stopping progress in US
- everyone over 70 could add 1 new justice
- bill was never past- people felt he was becoming a dictator
- bill never happened and cost him some support
- controversial part of his presidency

5. What were the causes of WWII?

Germany Invades Poland in 1939
Pearl Harbor is what got the U.S involved
Nationalism
Imperialism
Militarism
Alliances

6. 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?

The goals of the United States during the Cold War included wanting to promote open markets for US goods to prevent another depression and promote democracy throughout the world, especially in Asia and Africa. The US also wanted to stop the spread of communism because it could cause a domino effect.

8. What were some of the major events that took place during the Cold War?

Berlin Blockade and Airlift

Germany put up a blockade so the US couldn't enter
We sent a lot of planes and dropped goods in Berlin
- dropped food and supplies
if they shot down airplanes would have started war
ended in May of 49
communism failed
planes flew from West Germany

Cuban Missile Crisis

Soviets had nuclear missiles in Cuba. Closer range to attack us possibly and because of the Bay of Pigs invasion just happened. They were worried about a future invasion by the US. They invite USSR to Cuba. We found out by spy planes that took photographs.
After this happened: a 13 day crisis. We panicked. There was a compromise reached-Soviets pull missiles out of Cuba, we promise to never invade Cuba, we pledge in secret to remove our missiles from turkey in 6 months. This is the closest we ever came to nuclear war.

Red Scare/ McCarthyism

HUAC-House on Un-American activities committee went after Hollywood.
McCarthy was popular
- had a short rise and fall
- ruining careers
- Senate censored him after he accused high ranked military officers. 1951-1957

Space Race

race between US and Russia to get to space
Russia was ahead at first- with Sputnik (unmaned satellite)
- US thought they could use it to spy on us, US felt vulnerable because they beat us in something
- Education- science and math became majorly pushed so we got engineers and scientist out of schools in US
- Yuri Gagarin- USSR- first person in space
- Explorer 1- US Satellite
- 1960- Moonshot speech- JFK
- NASA
- 1969- US reached the moon
  - Neil Armstrong/ Buzz Aldrin
  - Space Shuttle technology in the 70s- now retired
    - 1985- Challenger explosion
    - 1st time they had taken a civilian up- school teacher
  - Mir- Int. Space Station
  - Hubble Space Telescope

Bay of Pigs- 1961

Bay in Cuba
Fidel Castro came to power a few years earlier
- didn't like him because he was communist
- Nixon came up with a plan to invade Cuba
- JFK carried it out
- Anti-Castro cubans did the attack- trained by the CIA to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro
- 1-2000 Cubans invaded- hoped cubans would fight with the anti-castros to overthrow Castro
- US was supposed to give Cubans air support but didn't because Kennedy didn't want it to seem like a US invasion
- was a fiasco- Cubans were either put in jail or killed

started under the Eisenhower administration- said if Eisenhower was president we would have done it right and he wouldn't have ruined it

Berlin Wall- 61-89

People in East Berlin and East Germany were moving to West Berlin so then you could get into West Germany
- getting out of communism
so Soviets built a wall
didn't want to build it would make them look bad by separating families
was a last resort
leader in East Germany said they weren't going to stop people moving from East to West Berlin
- people started jumping on it then they began to chip at it with chisels and things

9. Why did the US go to war in Korea and Vietnam and what were outcome of those wars?

Vietnam

US Goal

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

Korea

Korea was split after WW2. The Soviets were given the north.
Before war broke out there was going to be an election held to unite the country. War broke out
We pulled troops out of S Korea, the door was opened for North Korea to invade South Korea.
Kim il Sung(the grangfather of Kim Jong Un) -went to Stalin and Mao (leader of communist China) and asked for support in the invasion. Eventually they said yes.
North invades the South. South Korea isn't doing well. North pushes to the southern tip.
The UN steps in-wage war, help South Korea. MacArthur
South Koreans are not prepared
China gets involved-they think we were going to invade
When China gets involved they push us down, we stop them and push them back
For the next three years the fighting took place along the 38th parallel.
They are still "at war"
We have troops along the 38th parallel. 30,000 US soldiers and Korean guard the DMZ zone.
Now, if they invade south Korea, we would go to war.
It's called the forgotten war. 1950-1953. It was between two major wars (ww2 and Vietnam)
Still officially at war today

UN Security Council- declares war; includes US, USSR, G.B., France, China-Tawain

10. How did the Cold War come to an end?

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

11. Know these major post-Cold War Events:

John F Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas in the Elite Plaza while on a campaign trip. He was traveling in a parade with his wife, the Texas Governor, and the Texas Governor’s wife before going to luncheon to make a speech to fix the fighting between the Democratic Party in Texas. John was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald from a room on the 6^th floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Harvey was a sharp shooter in the marines before working at the TSBD. It is said that Lee did this because he thought we should keep our hands off Cuba and he was infatuated with communism. TO make matters worse, the Governor of Texas and secret service men were shot as well. Kennedy was later pronounced dead in Parkland Hospital shortly after arriving. Later that day, Lee was found at a Texas Theatre. It was said that after shooting the president he put his rifle down, bought a Coca Cola as he left, went to his second home, grabbed a pistol, and killed a police officer named JD Tippet. A 10 month investigation took place, but Oswald was not convicted for he was shot on the way to court by Jack Ruby.

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?
An FBI informant told these two to follow the money which means figured out who paid the guys that broke into it
Nixon used the CIA to block the FBI investigation
They followed the money back to the re-election organization and Nixon was covering it up
Two Washinton Post reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, investigated the story
They relied on an FBI informant known as Deep Throat to link the men to the Nixon White house; he said to follow the money
This became one of a series of scandalous acts involving the Committee to re-elect the president
Nixon downplayed the scandal and denounced the story as biased and misleading
FBI eventually confirmed that Nixon aides had attempted to sabotage the Democrats- many began resigning and faced prosecution
Nixon was involved by trying to cover up the break in (obstruction of justice) and eventually resigned from the presidency

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 aircrafts
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

began when Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 (Sudam Husan 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 Saudia 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

9/11-2001

4 planes were hijacked, hit the north tower, the south tower, the pentagon, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania
Al-Queda terrorists run by Osama bin Laden were responsible for this so in October of 2001, we invaded Afghanistan
Patriot Act was passed- government could listen in on conversations if they wanted too
Enhancement security of Airports
built up our military
country became very patriotic

War in Afghanistan

Result of 9/11
Taliban was the leader of the country
Al- Qaeda was training there, though Osama bin Laden was there
help set up a democracy
helped rebuild
Goal: defeat the taliban and Al-Queda and capture the leader, Osama Bin Laden
For the most part the war went over pretty well, but we are still there because they are hiding in the mountains from us
want to be out by the end of the year 2014
Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse

War in Iraq 2003

went there in order to capture, trial and execute Saddam Hussein and because they claimed to have/had access too/or were making weapons of mass destruction and that worried us (He was very odd with the Weapons inspectors, let them in, kick them out etc.)
The government was taken down very fast (us and 20 other countries)
helped set up a democracy there, but then we had to continue to fight Al-Qaeda and Suddam Husein's forces and deal with the Muslim civil war occurring in Iraq at that time
found Saddam in a hole
- found guilty of gas attacking his people, violence
Hussein was then hanged by Iraq people when captured underground in 2006
Bush sent a surge of troops- violence decrease- ends in 2011
terrorist attacks have now gone up 50%

Civil Rights Issues

Affirmative Action Laws = ultimate it forces businesses and colleges to accept (mostly) the African Americans.
Equal Employment Opportunity Act - enforces laws against workplace discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence and disability

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