USA: Impact of WW1

All these mindmaps are segmented into different topics 

I printed mine on A3 paper as i found it v difficult to use online and A4 was wayyy too small making the bubbles unreadable 

Beware of the typos I was too lazy to fix them whoops 

Enjoy the revison :)

?
View mindmap
  • Impact of WW1 on the USA
    • Europe damage by WW1
      • economies were in ruins as countries had borrowed money to finance war
        • Britain borrowed $4,277 million
        • France borrowed $3,405 million
      • Trade links and production had been disrupted
      • mines, factories and communication links had been destroyed by fighting
    • USA benefits from war
      • factories + farms producing goods at maximum capacity
        • producing 30% of the world's wheat + 70% petrol (early 1920s)
      • exporting food and manufactured goods to Europe = new export markets
      • High productivity and full employment = good wages for workers
    • Laissez Faire problems
      • when the prices of crops fell, many employers reduced their wages
      • letting businesses run their own affairs rather than enforcing business hours , prices or wages  BUT this meant problems
      • Gov, felt that this was all part of the economy returning to normal after the war and the Gov, didn't want to get involved
    • Why did the USA join the war on the side of the allies?
      • Felt American citizens were 'enemy targets' (Lustitania attack, May 1915)
      • Zimmerman telegram (25th Feb 1917) sent by German foreign secretary to German minister in Mexico
        • Trying to persuade Mexico to invade USA and take back land ('Texas and new Mexico')
      • Want to maintain a good relationship with the allies
      • Growing belief that German materialism did not fit with the ideas of a democratic world
    • Economic Strength
      • lots of money for food + raw materials = prosperous  agriculture +industry
      • advances in technology e.g. mechanisation which can be applied in industry
      • Companies more successful than their European competitors
    • Social / Economic problems
      • unemployment and strikes - returning soldiers couldn't find jobs
      • Prices risen but wages the same - high unemployment = boss unlikely to compromise (strikes in 1919)
      • Fears of radicalism as the war triggered a communist revolution in Russia (two communist parties established in USA 1919)
      • 1919 race riots due to the discrimination and poor economic circumstances
    • Wilson rejected
      • President Woodrow Wilson established the 'fourteen points' which were the basics of the league of Nations = world peace
      • By 1919: the US was against Wilson and the League as Americans didn't want to interfere with issues across the globe
      • 1919/1920: congress refused the League. Wilson was rejected and voted in a new president
        • Elected Harding who had the powerful idea of 'Normalcy' = get back to the way it was b4 war
    • Financial isolationism
      • protectionist policies
        • The economic policy of restraining trade through methods e.g. tariffs on imports, restrictive quotas ect
        • protectionism = decrease trade
        • Protects the country's economic independence
      • lassez faire = not interfering in business
      • New Acts
        • May 1921, Emergency Tariff Act = increased the import taxes on agricultural goods
        • June 1921, Budget and Accounting Act = put controls on gov. spending
        • Nov. 1921, Revenue Act = changed taxes, cutting individual and wartime tax on high levels of profit BUT  it introduceda rise in the amount of tax paid by businesses from 1922
        • September 1922, Fordney and McCumber Tariff Ac = raised tariffs + extended them to industrial goods. Gave the president power to raise the tariff yearly, in line with the selling price of the goods in the USA
      • New Tariffs encouraged Americans to buy American goods
        • Did not help US exports as countries retaliated by introducing their own tariffs = US became more expensive + less popular
    • Wilsons priorities for the ToV
      • Germans should be punished BUT not too harshly
      • Nations should cooperate to achieve world peace based on his 14 points so he set up the league of nations
      • Strengthen democracy in Germany = not let their rulers wage war

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all USA resources »