America During the 1920's

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America During the 1920's

In the first three decades of the 20th century, America became the

richest and most powerful country in the world. Its population, wealth

and industry were growing fast. It had plenty of natural resources

(oil, coal, iron ore etc.) The average American worker earned 5 xs

more than in Europe. Many Americans owned their own cars. America was

so rich it could lend money to Europe.

At the end of World War I, America turned its back on Europe. It

didn’t join the League of Nations in 1922. Also in 1922 the McCumber

tariff was introduced, this put heavy taxes on cheap foreign imports.

This made goods from other countries look very expensive to buy in

America, so Americans bought American made goods, and American

companies made big profits. However foreign countries retaliated by

putting high taxes on American goods being sold in their countries. By

the late 1920’s this was a big problem for America and Europe.

Isolationism roared for American companies as they made huge profits

but the American people lost out too because Europe couldn’t export

goods to America which is a very big country. So the tariff helped

industry roar for most of the 1920’s because Americans only bought

American made goods which meant that American companies made huge

profits. However by the late 1920’s American companies were finding it

hard to sell their goods in America because Americans already had

their goods and other countries would not buy them because of the high

taxes on them.

The Ku Klux Klan wanted to stir up hatred and prejudice against

blacks, Jews, Foreigners and Catholics. The Klan had been founded by

southern white...

... middle of paper ...

...ts feet this sent

the rest of the world into a depression by not being able to export

and import goods to or from America.

I don’t think anyone benefited from the great depression the people

who were best off were wealthy people who were not pulled into the

depression. But thanks to America isolating itself from the rest of

world it dragged the rest of the world down with it so the whole world

suffered as a result. Businesses lost out because they could not

export or import thing to and from America. Businesses in America had

to shut down because of lack of funds so they owners and workers lost

their lively hoods. Average American citizens lost out because they

lost their jobs so could not afford to pay for clothes, food or

shelter. The Wall Street crash caused a chain reaction which lead to

the great depression.

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