Chapter 9 & 10 Test Review

I Intro: The Great Depression was caused by various factors, including farm failure, overspeculations, an unstable economy, and was finally triggered by the stock market crash of 1929. It not only affected Americans, with over 1/3 of the population becoming homeless, but the whole world because other countries could not trade with the U.S. Things did not get any better with Hoover in office and kept getting worse until Roosevelt was elected and put the New Deal into action.

II Causes (The causes of the great depression were farm failure, too much borrowed money, stock market crash)

A overspeculation

• Too much money borrowed in order to buy stocks.
• People unable to repay loans.

B Govt Policy

• Bull market and buying on margin.
• Only so many shares of stock can be bought.

C Unstable Economy

• Too much borrowed money.
• Stocks growing to fast.

1 uneven prosperity

• Rich get richer, poor get poorer.
• No middle class which is needed for stability.

2 overproduction

• Too much product being produced.
• Nobody to buy it so the company sits on it.

3 worker issues / farm issues

• Many unemployed, make barely any money.
• Government fearful of riots.

III Effects

A Poverty

• 1/3 of americans unemployed.
• No money being put into the economy.

B Society

• People homeless and live in HooverVilles.
• Hobo riots start up.

C World

• Other countries couldn't trade with the U.S.
• The depression affected everyone.

IV Solutions

A Hoover

• Hoover did not do much.
• Tried but not that hard.

1 Volunteerism

• Help the poor.
• Soup kitchens.

2 Public Works

• Put people to work.
• Made bridges and dams.

3 Hawley Smoot

• Raised tariffs on international trade.
• Contributed to the fall of the economy.

4 RFC

• Reconstruction finance corporation.
• Made loans to railroads, banks,and other businesses.

B Roosevelt

• Elected over Hoover.
• Willing to try anything to help.

1 new deal

• Acts to pull the country out of the depression.
• Helped just about everyone.

a alphabet soup

• CCC
• CWA
• WPA

b Criticsim?

• Left and Right wings.
• Some thought too much some thought not enough.

2 2nd new deal

a. Improved use of natural resources.

b. Social Security

c. Welfare

V Criticicism

B Political Criticism (ex. Came from both the left and right.)

A Conservatives

• Too much government control.

B Liberals (ex: criticised the new deal also. They....)

Ex: Not enough government control.

ex: Tax the rich and give to the poor.

VI Effectiveness

A Changes in US

• People called for government assistance.

B Unions

• Unions were granted more power and privileges.

C Culture

• Modern entertainment became more popular.

VII Conclusion: Without Roosevelt, the U.S. may never have came out of the depression, because of the drastic changes he was willing to make. His New Deal and established programs provided relief to the people, and his fireside chats instilled more confidence in the government, making the population willing to back Roosevelt and not only beat the Great Depression, but prosper.

The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building

By: Alec Winsor

          The Empire State Building is a 103 story tall skyscraper located in Manhattan, NY. It stood as the worlds tallest building from 1931 to 1970, almost 40 years. The building now only the 23rd tallest, but it has been named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. John Jacob Raskob, former Vice President of General Motors, wanted to build a scyscraper of his own, so he, along with his partners, purchased a piece of property at the corner of 34th street and Fifth Avenue of 16 million. It's overall cost to date is $629 million with inflation and deflation accounted for, but $40,948,900 in actual dollars. 

          The design of the Empire State Building was created by William F. Lamb, who worked for the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, the blueprints for the were created in just 2 weeks. Lamb's mission was to make the building as tall as he could without it falling over. With the plans developed, a race between Lamb and Walter Chrysler had begun, Chrysler working on the Chrysler Building. Both architects planned to make their respective buildings the tallest in the world. Lamb thought that 80 stories would make it the tallest but then the Chrysler went higher. They then lifted the building 5 stories, but it was only 4 feet taller than the rival building. Raskob was worried that Chrysler would pull a trick, like putting a rod in the spire and then pulling it out at the last minute, so he needed to come up with a plan to counter this. The plan was to make a "hat" for it, which could also be used as a docking station for airships in the future. This won Raskoba and Lamb the scyscraper race, the Empire State Building ended up being over 1,250 feet tall and the Chrysler Building was 1,046 feet.

Sources:

• http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/empirestatebldg.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building

Letter Home

Letter Home

By: Alec Winsor

Dear Mom and Dad,

               How have things been going? Hopefully better than they are over here. The war has been pretty rough on all of us, but we will get through it and win it. At least it's not as bad as I thought it would be, after all, I'm not dead yet. The only part of the whole thing that actually scares me is when we get sent into the trenches. All of the artillery fire raining down is enough to break a man, but mixed in with all gunshots and people dying, it's no wonder that dozens of our men get evacuated because of shell shock. Oh yeah and the rats and disease will kill you even if the bad guys don't! The rats are everywhere! Always around your feet, scurrying about on the ground and swarming around our wounded. I'm also worried that if we have an outbreak of the flu or something, that it will kill us all. I've heard some rumors that the Germans have lounges in their bunkers with like cushioned seats, sofas and that sort of thing. I wish we had it that good over here on the other side of no mans land, I mean, if you're lucky, you get to sit on a piece of wood. Well at least I'm healthy enough to write this and keep in the fight. Say hi to the rest of the family for me and I hope you all are doing good.

     Love,

               Alec

WWI Causes

World War I Causes

By: Alec Winsor

The four main causes of World War I were militarism, the alliance system, imperialism, and nationalism. 

• Militarism: The British had the strongest navy in the world,and the Germans, along with other countries were trying to establish their own so they would be ready for any conflict.
• Alliance System: An alliance is an agreement between two countries, like the U.S. and Britain or Germany and Austria-Hungary, for support during times of war. This can be bad because if one country goes into war, then all their alliances has to help them, tying up many countries into an conflict originally between only two nations.
• Imperialism: Imperialism is building power of a nation by taking over smaller colonies. Before WWI, countries were fighting about colonies that they both wanted to claim, so they decide to go to war over them.
• Nationalism: Nationalism is extreme passion for your home country. What  triggered WWI was when a member of a Serbian nationalist group called the Black Hand, named Gavrilo Princip, killed the Archduke of Austria-Hungary. He was showing nationalism because at the time, Austria-Hungary controlled Bosnia, and he wanted freedom for the people.

During June in 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir of the Austro- Hungarian throne, was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian revolutionary, while he and his wife drove through the streets of Sarajevo. With Serbia's alliance to Russia and Austria-Hungary with Germany, the two countries went to war. Eventually many more countries would become involved in this dispute, including the U.S and Britain, because of the alliance system.

1. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare started in 1915 and continued until 1918. During this time the Germans were the main country doing, this using their U-boats to sink British and American cargo and passenger ships claiming that they thought they were undercover battleships.
2. The sinking of the RMS Lusitania took place on May 7th, 1915. The ship was shot down by a torpedo from the German U-boat U-20. It sunk 11 miles off of the coast of Ireland,killing 1,198 people and leaving 761 survivors.
3. The Sussex Pledge was a promise made by Germany in 1916, saying that they would not target passenger ships, and merchant ships would not be sunk unless weapons were identified and the passengers and crew had to be kept safe.
4. The Zimmerman note was a proposal sent from Germany to Mexico in 1917, to join the Central Powers. The note was intercepted by British intelligence, decoded, and shown to the U.S. which caused war to be declared on Germany.   

Shell Shock

Shell Shock in WWI

By: Alec Winsor

               Shell shock was a reaction to the stress of war that affected some soldiers. It especially was common with soldiers that faced a certain event, such as, stabbing someone in the stomach or the face, being bombarded by artillery, or just witnessing killing in general. Some men that bayonetted  Common symptoms include fatigue, tremors, confusion, nightmares, and impaired sight and hearing. Different doctors had different theories as to what causes shell shock, including hidden damage to the brain, and poisoning from the carbon monoxide from explosions. It was later concluded that it was from emotional damage, versus physical. After World War I, the term shell shock was replaced with combat stress reaction, which was used through World War II and present day.

               During earlier stages of the war, shell shock victims were immedietly removed from the front lines mainly from fear of their unpredictable nature. But as the war went on, and the number of men able to fight decreased, the question of what to do with shell shocked soldiers became a bigger issue to authorities. Officials became more concerned with this situation and had a hard time returning these men to battle. If a man was uninjured physically, it was easier to redeploy him. Because of this, they had to devote more time and effort to understanding and attempting to treat shell shocked victims.

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_shock

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/shellshock_01.shtml

Progressive Era - The Jungle

Progressive Era - The Jungle

By: Alec Winsor

1. What qualities did Sinclair believe that a person must have to succeed in Packingtown?

• He believed that the person is a knave, a liar, and a deceiver.

2. According to the passage, what is the plant owners main goal?

• All the plant owner cared about was making as much money for himself as possible, no matter how bad working conditions were.

3. What does Sinclair mean when he says, "…there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar…?"

• It means that nobody in the factory cared about anyone else, all they cared about was themselves and the money they were making.

When it was published, The Jungle was so shocking that it launched a government investigation of the meatpacking industry.  The investigation eventually led to the establishment of laws regulating the industry.  Using the internet, research an area that our government enforces now (meat packing, environment, pharmaceuticals) and report how this is enforced today.

• With global warming, pollution, and growth of industry happening in the world, people are not very concerned with the conservation of the environment, so the government had to intervene. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), enforces environmental laws by using administrative and civil actions, along with traditional police-type enforcement. 

 Source: http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/391.html

Imperialism

U.S. Imperialism

By: Alec Winsor

               Imperialism, by definition, is the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries. In my opinion, the U.S. should be an imperialist nation, only if it is necessary, meaning that we should only imperialize another country if it is crucial for economic or military gain, or is needed to protect the country from a possible threat to the population. But in 1900, imperialism was a good idea for the U.S., because it helped it expand its territory as a newer country, and assert itself to other countries. Not everyone had this viewpoint of imperialism in the 1900's, some people thought the idea was wrong, and others were in the middle, liking ideas from both sides.

          In 1900, three of the most influential voices on the idea of imperialism were  Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, war hero/vice-presidential running mate Theodore Roosevelt, and Senator Orville H. Platt. Not all three of them had the same thoughts on imperialism: Bryan did not approve of it, Roosevelt, with his Anglo-Saxon viewpoints, liked the idea, while Platt thought that making a compromise would be the answer. In the presidential election of 1900, William Jennings tried to appeal to the anti-imperialists by relating to Filipinos to early American colonists and saying that they should be given a chance to develop themselves. On the other side, Theodore Roosevelt stated in response to Bryan that, with the Filipinos being underdeveloped, they are unfit to govern themselves, and the U.S. needs to supervise and govern them so that all the work of ridding "Spanish tyranny" from the islands does not go to waste. On the issue of what to do with Cuba, president McKinley and others thought the Cubans did not have the ability to govern themselves.