“Adjusting to Peacetime”

  Warren Harding- (pg. 737)  Calvin Coolidge- (pg. 737)  Disarmament- (pg. 738)  Communism- (pg. 738)  Anarchist- (pg. 739) Vocabulary Terms

  By 1920, the mishandling of the peace treaty at Versailles and a failing economy made Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats very unpopular.  The end of WWI. was followed by a recession  Strikes led to major disputes after the war.  Some Americans feared that Communists would overthrow the government as they did in Russia. Return To Normalcy

  Warren Harding won the Election of  He promised a return to “normalcy”  Harding was a firm supporter of business.  Many of Harding’s appointees were involved in major scandals. The Harding Administration

  The biggest scandal was the Teapot Dome.  The secretary of the Department of the Interior, Albert Fall, secretly leased the land and all of its oil reserves to an oil man.  In return, Fall received a bride of $400,000 Teapot Dome

  In 1923, Harding suffered a heart attack and died, leaving Calvin Coolidge to deal with the fallout of the scandals. Harding’s Death

  Most Americans did not want our nation involved in world affairs. This was known as isolationism.  The U.S. encourages disarmament, which meant to reduce and limit military forces.  The Naval Arms Conference resulted in a treaty limiting the Navies of the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. Foreign Policy

  President Coolidge believed that the government had the right to intervene in foreign matters that affected American business.  In 1926, a revolution broke out in Nicaragua. Coolidge sent in troops to protect the American businesses that were there.  In the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Communist had taken over power in Russia. They created the Soviet Union, the world’s first Communist state. Coolidge/Government

 Bolshevik Revolution

  The postwar strikes that affected the United States made Americans fear a revolution.  The fears reached a fever pitch when a series of bombings occurred by anarchists.  During the Red Scare, thousands of anarchists and Communists were arrested. The Red Scare

  In May of 1920, two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested and charged with robbing and murder.  This was ironic because there was little evidence against them. The prosecution focused on the fact that both were foreigners and anarchists. Sacco and Vanzetti

  Fears about radicals led to limits on immigration in the United States.  Many Americans feared that the mainstream culture was being overwhelmed.  American workers were concerned that newcomers would take their jobs. Limiting Immigration