Chapter 16.2

 The Western governments (Britain, France, United States) look powerful  Ruled Paris Peace Conference  Hopes for democracy among new nations in Eastern Europe  Problems beneath the surface

 Times of uncertainty = political unheaval

 The US emerges from WWI in good shape  Late entrant into war=relatively few casualties and little loss of property  Domestic Unrest  Fear of the Bolshevik Revolution set off the Red Scare  Police rounded up foreign born radicals and a number were expelled from the US  Sacco and Vanzetti  The Red Scare let to demands in the limit of immigration

 France wanted to secure its borders against Germany  Built Maginot Line along German border  France also strengthened its military alliances with other countries  Strict enforcement of the treaty of Versailles and payment reparations  Kept German Economy weak - $30 Billion = $2.7 Today  Britain disagrees with this

 People worked for peace in the 1920s  1925-Locarno Treaties signed (settled Germany’s disputed borders)  Kellogg Briand Pact- the great powers pursued disarmament  Almost every independent nation signs

 Peace was fragile  The League was powerless to stop aggression  Dictators in Europe noted the League’s weaknesses and pursued aggressive foreign policies

 The war hurt and helped some nation’s economies  Britain and France owed a lot of money to the United States  They depended on the reparations from Germany  These Reparations hurt Germany

 Britain deeply in debt in the 1920s  Factories were out of date  Unemployment is severe  Wages remain low  general strike occurs which lasts nine days  The french economy recovered rapidly  Reparations and territories from Germany help out a lot

 The US emerges from the war as the leading economic power U.S is #1!

 The wealth in the US was not evenly spread  The demand for raw goods during the war was great  After demand dwindled, production didn’t  Led to overproduction  Factories began to make less, and cut worker’s jobs

 Prices at the NY Stock exchange were at an all time high  People bought stocks through risky means  The Federal Reserve raised interest rates in 1928 and 1929 to slow the growth  In the autumn of 1929, jitters over the economy caused everyone to sell their stocks all at once  Black Tuesday  Financial panic set in  Stocks crashed  The Great Depression begins

The governments of Britain, France, and the United States try to find ways to life the depression.

 Britain sets up a coalition government made of leaders from all three political parties  By 1931, 1 in 4 workers is unemployed  By the min-1930s France felt the pinch of the Depression  People back Leon Blum- a socialist leader  Strikes soon bring down Blum’s government because he could not solve all of the labor problems

 US president Herbert Hoover believed the government should not intervene in private business matters  Did try limited number of measures to solve crisis (Hoover Dam, etc.)  Didn’t help to ease the financial crisis

 Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected  Said the government needed to take an active role in combating the Depression  Introduced the New Deal  Government became more involved in people’s lives  Passed legislation  social security  TVA

 Natural disaster hit many states- created the Dust Bowl  Migrant workers went Westward  Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck  Dorothea Lange – famous photographer!

Migrant Mother Hard Times and Good Times in America