Key Events and Themes of the 1920s America

Washington Naval Conference

Five major naval powers agreed to disarm.

Harding

voices public desire for "normalcy"

favors limited government role in business, social reform

Harding cut the federal budget and reduced taxes for the wealthy

Harding hoped his actions would help businesses grow and strengthen the economy

scandels

Ohio Gang

Corrupt friends in Harding's cabinet causing embarrassment.

Urban Sprawl

Spread of cities as workers live far from jobs.

Teapot Dome Scandal

Scandal

naval oil reserves used for personal gain

Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall leases land to private companies

Fall takes bribes; is first person convicted of felony while in cabinet

Consumerism

Increased focus on consumer goods in society.

Fordney-McCumber Tariff

raises taxes on U.S. imports to 60%

Britain, France cannot repay U.S.

Germany defaults; Dawes Plan—U.S. investors lend reparations money

Britain, France repay; resentment on all sides

Nativism

Prejudice against foreign-born individuals in America.

Isolationism

Withdrawal from international affairs and conflicts.

Sacco and Vanzetti

Italian radicals who became symbols of the Red Scare of the 1920s; arrested (1920), tried and executed (1927) for a robbery/murder, they were believed by many to have been innocent but convicted because of their immigrant status and radical political beliefs.

Xenophobia

a fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers

Communism

Single-party government with no private property.

John L. Lewis

head of the United Mine Workers and the nation's most prominent labor leader

called his union's members out on strike

Strikes

Labor conflicts with over 3,000 strikes recorded.

Prohibition

the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages were legally prohibited.

Reformers had long considered liquor a prime cause of corruption

Quota System

established the maximum number of people who could enter the United States from each foreign country

The goal of the quota system was to cut sharply European immigration to the United States

Bootleggers

Smugglers of illegal alcohol from various regions.

Speakeasies

Hidden bars selling alcoholic beverages illegally.

Scopes Trial

Tennessee passed the nation's first law that made it a crime to teach evolution

John Scopes was charged with teaching the theory of evolution and breaking the Tennessee law

Flappers

Young women in the 1920s who challenged social traditions with their dress and behavior

NAACP

tried to remove barriers to black employment

African Americans remained the targets of discrimination

Published the crisis

e number of lynchings dropped.

Harlem Renaissance

Cultural movement celebrating African American arts.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Painter

Showed modernism

produced intensely colored canvases that captured the grandeur of New Mexico

Dawes Plan

U.S. loans to Germany for reparations repayment.

Albert B. Fall

Interior Secretary involved in Teapot Dome scandal.

coolidge

favors minimal government interference in business

low taxes and available credit for businesses

high tariffs on foreign goods

reduced income tax, more money for consumers

strikes

conflict formed between labor and management

more than 3,000 strikes during which some 4 million workers walked off the job.

Employers labeled striking workers as Communists