When the stock market crashed and banks went bankrupt, people felt they had lost everything and stopped buying products. As less was purchased, less needed to be made. This caused businesses to lay off their employees thus making more people feel like they had even less money to spend. Having less money caused people to buy less, and so on.
The New Deal set up many programs to try and counteract the effects of the Depression, many of which are still in effect today. It helped farmers by paying them to produce less so there wouldn't be a surplus that would cause prices to fall (AAA). It helped banks by having an emergency bank holiday so banks wouldn't have to close their doors permanently. It also set up the FDIC to put people's trust back in banks by assuring that if this ever happened again, they would be insured by the government up to $100,000. It helped people get jobs through the CCC and NYA. The CCC provided work through construction jobs on things like roads and public buildings. The NYA helped young people get jobs by providing grants that allowed students to remain at school and work at the same time. The SS Act was also passed to help the elderly and disabled that could not work.
2. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of WWII.
-Pearl Harbor
Japan attacked on December 7, 1941, in two waves. It was unexpected but it had been spotted on the radar and was dismissed as a fleet of B-17s from the mainland. This attack brought the US into WWII.
-D-Day
The invasion began June 6, 1944, at 6:30am on northern France. The attack came in two parts: one from the air and the other from the water. It was the largest amphibious attack. The US sent faulty info for the sole purpose of having it intercepted so the Germans would think they were attacking somewhere else. Despite this, it was still a difficult attack. The Germans were dug into the beaches with so it was hard to hit them. They also had land mines dug into the beaches.
-Atomic bombing
Two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in two different cities. This brought about Japan's surrender as they didn't want any more destruction.
-Africa/European Front
The main war against Germany and the Nazis. Germany starts by trying to reunite the German speaking people by taking over other countries. Germany agrees at the Munich Conference not to invade Poland. Germany invades Poland not long after and the Allies declare war. Everything plays out from there. Eventually attack from bases in Africa. Eventually take over Germany, over-throw Hitler, treaty is signed.
-Pacific Front
Mainly between Japan and the US. US stopped trading with Japan when they invaded China. This brought about the attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the US into the war.
3. Students will understand how/why the Allies won WWII.
There are a number of reasons why the Allied Powers won the war. A major reason was it was not fought on US soil; there was no threat to US factories so we could make the goods and ship them to our allies while Germany was attempting to produce needed products and fight on the same ground. Another reason was advanced technology: We had the atomic bomb (used to end the Pacific side of the war) that had been created by Jewish scientists, whom Hitler was persecuting in Germany; we also had the unbroken Navajo code as well as being able to break code.
4. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Cold War.
a. Define the Cold War and its causes
The Cold War was a political, ideological conflict between the US and the Soviet Union. Its causes were that the two countries didn't agree from the get-go because of differences between communism and democracy, the fact that the US hid the fact of the atomic bomb from the USSR even though they were allies, and the US wanted Germany to trade freely and the USSR didn't want outside influences to weaken them (they didn't want them to not want communism).
b. Policy of Containment was created to contain communism.
-The domino effect was that if one country falls to communism, then another will, and when that one does, another one will, and this would continue until communism reached the US
-Mutual deterrence is when its known that a country has mass weapons and that keeps other countries from attacking them because the other countries know you will attack right back and much worse.
-Massive retaliation is when a country gets attacked and immediately attacks back to the other country will stop attacking because they know they will be attacked right back.
-Truman Doctrine was a strategy to contain communism and give aid to Greece and Turkey to fight communism.
-Marshall Plan was the main plan for rebuilding and creating a stronger economy in Europe and giving aid to Europe to rebuild after the after war so it wouldn't turn to communism.
-NATO stood for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 28 countries joined in agreement to mutual defense.
c. Both Berlin Crises
The first crisis was the blockade and airlift. The USSR thought since Berlin was completely in their territory, it should be completely theirs instead of split the way it was. They thought the other countries would withdraw their claims if they didn't have the needed supplies so they kept everything from getting through to Berlin. Our solution was to airlift in the supplies. When the Soviets realized we wouldn't surrender, they ended to blockade.
The second crisis was the Berlin Wall. Too many people were leaving the horrid conditions of East Germany for the much better conditions of the west. Germany's solution was to build a wall through Berlin to keep people from escaping. Many people still found a way and still more were killed in attempt. The wall finally came down when the Soviets realized it was no good.
d. The Red Scare was the fear that communism would spread to the US.
-McCarthyism was basically the witch-hunts of communists in congress.
-HUAC: House Committee on Un-American Activities. This basically investigated German Americans involved with the Nazis or the Klu Klux Klan.
e. Fidel Castro
-The Bay of Pigs was the failed attempt by the CIA to train anti-Castro Cubans to over-take Castro.
-The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest thing to an all-out nuclear war that has ever happened. It started when it was suspected that the USSR was placing missiles in Cuba. The US was able to fire missiles anywhere so the USSR decided to even the score. US ended up putting a blockade around Cuba to keep any more missiles from entering Cuba. Eventually agreed to remove missiles from Cuba.
f. China
Basically the communists were fighting against the anti-communists for control of China.
g. Nuclear Arms Race and Reductions
Basically a race between the US and the Russians to see who could produce superior nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
h. How the Cold War ended.
The Soviets were in debt from their war with the Afghans. They were in too much debt from this war with Afghanistan that they soon became weak. The war ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Several new countries came out of all of this including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Armenia.
5. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Korean Conflict.
The battle was over joining Korea as one communist country. The South, aided by the US, didn't want to be communist. There was never a clear 'winner', just a cease-fire. It was a back and forth battle where one side would gain on the other and then be pushed back.
6. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Vietnam Conflict.
The North invaded the South aiming to unite it as one communist country. Of course the US got in on it as it was a battle against communism. The US eventually pulled out and the South was over-taken and the two were combined into one nation.
Comments