Untitled Flashcards Set

Herby Hoovster & the Great Depression

The Great Depression

• Worst economic crisis in U.S. history

• People had to rely on soup kitchens, which gave out free food to the poor because they couldn’t survive without this.

Herbert Hoover (Background)

• Hoover organized food drives for the starving people of Belgium during WWI. His leadership of the Food Administration during WWI nicknamed him “Great Engineer” and “Wonder Boy”

• Was Secretary of Commerce for Presidents Harding and Coolidge

• Businessman who opposed Socialism or large-scale government intervention in the economy.

• Considered a “progressive”. Believed the government should correct problems if someone is doing something wrong but otherwise, “hand-off”

Herbert Hoover(President: 1929-1933)

• Platform Slogan for the 1928 Election: “A Chicken for Every Pot; a car in every garage.”

• Claimed in 1928 that “Poverty will be banished from the nation.” and “everybody ought to be rich”

• Hoover made the President’s office the coordinator for private relief. Between 1929 and 1932, donations for relief increased eightfold

• 1929: Agricultural Marketing Act (Created the Federal Farm Board)

  • 1st gov agency responsible for stabilizing farm prices

  • $500 million to help farmers create more cooperative marketing association and achieve more efficient production. Max prices were set

1932 - Trickle Down Theory

• Give loans to big corporations to keep them in business

• Hoover’s control of the economy began to slip. He demanded that the “villains of Wall Street” make massive new investments

• Hoover created the emergency government agency: the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)

  • A government bank set up to help failing banks

  • They gave loans to banks and the railroads

  • They supported a public works program but were underfunded

  • They invested $1.5 billion in private enterprise, but never had enough money and were never aggressive enough to be effective

The Country in Shambles

• Smoot-Hawley Tariff from 1930. Highest tariff in history. ¾ of all American farm products were protected by this bill. It intensified the world depression by cutting the international flow of trade. Other countries retaliated with high tariffs of their own.

• Unemployment increased to 12 million

• Local relief funds evaporated

• The Farm Board ran out of credit when commodity prices continued to fall. Farmers burned crops. Farmers in the Midwest with hunting rifles closed the courts so mortgages couldn’t be foreclosed.

It’s ALL Hoover’s Fault

• “Hoover blanket” old newspaper used as blankets

• “Hoover flag”  was an empty pocket turned inside-out

• “Hoover leather” was cardboard used to line a shoe when the sole was worn out

• Hoover’s popularity declined, he publicly denied problems, insisting that “no one is actually starving”

• He believed in “rugged individualism” but people saw him as cold and uncaring

Dust Bowl

Farmers struggled even before the Depression

• The Dust Bowl devastated farmers in the Midwest

• During WWI, farmers did well, because the war created a demand for farm produce and raised farm prices

• Farmers raised a lot of crops, but many of them did not understand crop rotation method (invented by George Washington Carver) and the crops used up by many of the nutrients in the soil.

• These methods left the land dry, useless, and unable to grow any crops

During the early ‘30s, the Midwest also experienced a drought which made the soil drier.

• The Dust Bowl was a series of windstorms that carried the soil high in the air and created massive dark clouds of dust

• Some of these storms buried entire homes and cities

• The Dust Bowl forced many midwest farmers to leave and move to other parts of the country. (especially here in Cali)

WWII Review

A Weak League of Nations

The Ineffectiveness of the League of Nations

• No control of major conflicts

• No progress in disarmament

• No effective military force

Germany lost Territory of WWI

The Versailles Treaty

Major Leaders

• Adolf Hitler - Nazi Germany

• Benito Mussolini - Italy

Fascism in Europe

• Hitler (Germany) “Fuhrer” : Chancellor of Germany - 1933

  • Nazi Third Reich replaces Weimar Republic

  • Promise of German economic recovery

  • Beginnings of the Holocaust

  • German rearmament begins

• Mussolini (Italy) - “Il Duce” (The Duke): 1922

  • Invasion of Ethiopia - 1935

Third Reich

• Nationalistic

• Imperialistic

  • Continental Empire

  • Autarky (economic independence)

  • Elimination of non-Germans

  • Elimination of enemies

Hitler’s Timeline

• Gestapo Created - April 1933

• Jewish Boycott - April, 1933

• Jewish Books Banned & Burned  - May, 1933

• 27,000 People in Camps - July 1933

• 60,000 People in Camps - 1938

• Illegal to leave Germany - October 1941

The Munich Agreement, 1938

• Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr Hitler is a man we can do business with.

• British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

German Territorial Gains

• Austria

• Border of Czechoslovakia

• All of Czechoslovakia

• Poland

• By summer of 1940, Germany controlled much of Europe (World shocked as france falls to germans)

Poland Attacked  - Sept 1 1939

• Blitzkreig: Lightning war

Beginnings of War in Europe

• German annexation of Austria

• Munich agreement

• German occupation of Czechoslovakia

• Italian occupation of Albania

• Britain and France guarantee of protection for Poland

• Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - August 1939

  • Non aggression treaty between Soviet Union and Germany

Major Leaders

• Hideki Tojo

  • Japanese prime minister

• Winston Churchill

  • British prime minister

The Empire of Japan

• Anti-imperialist Imperialism

  • Nationalist destiny

  • Asia for the Asians

• Autarky (economic independence)

  • Expanding buffer zones

Japan Invades Manchuria

Beginnings of War for Japan

• Years of border clahses between Japanese and the Chinese

  • Started with the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria

• Another issue was ta conflict historians call the “Second Sino-Japanese War”

• Began in 1937 with a battle called the “Marco Polo Bridge Incident”