AMERICA

• EVIDENCE OF OPPORTUNITIES - 1920s

  • new industries created - 500,000 workers were employed in the car industry alone by 1925
  • buying on margins allowed millions of working class Americans to buy consumer goods
  • thousands of african americans moved north in “great migration“
  • the wages of the average American worker increased by more than 20%
• EVIDENCE OF INEQUALITIES

  • workers in old industries lost their jobs
  • farmers lost income and often their land
  • native americans were forced to live in reservations
  • most african americans remained sharecroppers in the south
  • there were huge inequalities in wealth
• 1922


  Fordney McCumber Act increases tariffs on foreign goods
• 1924


  600,000 farmers lose their land
• 1929 March

  Herbert Hoover is elected
• 1929 September 


  Wall Street crash begins
• in 1911 a car cost $800 to make. by 1928 mass production had lowered the cost to $300
• by 1926 there are 20 million cars on Americas roads
• by 1929 50% of consumer goods were made in the USA
• 1920 


  women are given the vote
• 1927


  first talkies are introduced in Hollywood films
• OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN 1920s

  • american women won the vote
  • divorce rate doubled
  • WW1 led to many women entering the workforce, a 25% increase from 1920-1929
  • flappers began to become more common
• INEQUALITIES FOR WOMEN 1920s

  • by 1929 only 5 out of 435 were women
  • organisations like the Anti Flirt league were set up
  • woman tended to work in the least skilled jobs and earned less that men for the same work
  • most flappers came from middle-upper class background in northern cities (rural areas and poor women had less change)
• by 1929 10.5 million women were in work
• by 1930 100 million americans were going to the cinema each week
• 1920 


  prohibition law was passed
• Feb 14th 1929


  7 rival gangsters are murder in chicago on Al Capones orders in the “St valentine’s day massacre”
• 1933

  alcohol is legalised by President Roosevelt, who is elected having made popular promise to end Prohibition
• CAUSES OF PROHIBITION

  • pressures groups - anti-saloon league to ban alcohol
  • religious groups - churches opposed alcohol because they blamed it for growing violence and addiction
  • rural areas - rural areas were more conservative than cities that strongly supported prohibition
• EVENTS OF PROHIBITION

  • illegal bars - gangs set up and ran secret illegal known as speakeasies
  • smuggling - ”bootleggers” smuggling alcohol in from abroad, making money from selling ”moonshine”
  • prohibition - 3000 prohibition agents were hired to find and shutdown illegal alcohol makers and sellers
• OUTCOMES OF PROHIBITION

  • violence - growing violence as rival gangs fought for control of the alcohol business
  • corruption - gangs made so much money they could bribe most police, prohibition agents, lawyers and judges to avoid arrest
  • ending prohibition - Roosevelt ended prohibition in 1933
• after prohibition in 1920 deaths from alcohol poisoning actually increased 800% by 1926
• there were over 300,000 speakeasies across America by 1930
• Al Capone was making $10 million a year from racketeering alone
• IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA PUSH FACTORS

  • poverty - majority of Europeans lived in poverty
  • persecution - different groups were persecuted for their religious or political beliefs in europe, especially jews in eastern europe
  • lack of opportunity - europe was still divided by a sticky class system
• PULL FACTORS OF IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA

  • work and pay - american wages were double european ones and there were millions of new jobs because mass production
  • greater freedom - the US religious and political minorities had greater freedom of speech and protection from persecution
  • american dream
• OPPORTUNITY FOR IMMIGRANTS

  • many immigrants were able to escape sever persecution that they faced in their homeland
  • jews faced mob attacks known as pogroms and had limited access to schools in Russia
  • american wages were double those available in Europe
  • mass prod and the post war boom created millions of job opportunities
• INEQUALITIES FOR IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA

  • red scare means many immigrants persecuted for their african political beliefs particularly those from E. Europe
  • immigration was massively reduced in the early 1920s
  • most immigrants faced work in poor conditions and severe hardship. many were uneducated and were exploited and overworked in sweatshops
• 1917 


  communist revolution in Russia
• 1920

  ”palmer raids“ leads to arrest of over 6000 suspected communists
• 1921


  immigration quota law allowing 350,000 immigrants to enter each year
• 1924


  national origins act cut immigration to 150,000 a year
• OPPORTUNITIES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS

  • moving north - african americans moved North could get higher wages in new mass production industries. there was less racism in the north than the south
  • harlem renaissance - in the North, African Americans had opportunities to express themselves as writers, artists and musicians. this led to the invention of jazz
  • new organisations - the NAACP was set up and battled against racial inequality
• INEQUALITIES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS

  • discrimination in the north - those who move North still faced lower wages and had to live in worse neighbourhoodd than white people. there were anti-black riots in northern cities like chicago
  • lynching - hundreds of african americans were lycnhed over the course of the 1920s
  • rise of the KKK - membership reached of 5 million in the 1920s
• 1910

  National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) founded
• Jim Crow Laws

  the racist segregation laws in the south
• OPPORTUNITIES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS

  • moving north - new mass production industries. there was less racism in the north
  • harlem renaissance - north african americans had opportunities to express themselves
  • new organisations - founding of NAACP
• INEQUALITIES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS

  • discriminarion in the north - those who move north still faced lower wages and had to live in worse neighbourhoods than white people. there were anti-black riots in chicago
  • lynching - african americans were lynched
  • rise of the KKK - peak of 5 million, intimidating and terrorising african americans
• How were different groups affected by the great depression?

  • Factory owners - cut production, wages and jobs to stay in business
  • Hobos - lived in slums known as Hoovervilles
  • Farmers - thousands went into debt and lost their farms to banks, 1 in 20 by 1932
  • Factory workers - lost jobs or wages were cut
  • The very rich - lost some wealth but had properties to fall back on
• 24th October 1929

  Wall street crash begins - 13 million shares sold in single day in panic selling