History 1302 Test 3

Stock Market Crash, Oct 29, 1929

"The Roaring Twenties" was the aptly-named era of reckless consumer spending and credit expansion made possible by the Federal Reserve System's heedless fiscal policy after World War I. In other words, the Federal government created a boom through easy money and widely available credit, which was soon followed by the inevitable bust. Directly preceding the Stock Market Crash of 1929, margin requirements were only 10%. In other words, brokerage firms would lend $9 for every $1 an investor had invested. When the market fell, desperate brokers called in the full value of these loans, which borrowers did not have enough time or money to repay. Banks began to fail as debtors defaulted on debt and depositors attempted to withdraw their deposits en masse, triggering multiple bank runs. In the US, stock prices began to fall around September 4, 1929, snowballing quickly to became a worldwide epidemic with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as "Black Tuesday"). Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Government guarantees and Federal Reserve banking regulations to prevent such panics were ineffective or not used. Bank failures led to the loss of billions of dollars in assets. Outstanding debts became heavier, because while prices and incomes fell by 20-50%, the tace value of debts themselves remained at the same dollar amount. In the first 10 months of after the crash, 744 U.S. banks failed. (In all, 9,000 banks failed during the 1930s). By April 1933, around $7 billion in deposits had been frozen in failed banks or those left unlicensed after the March "Bank Holiday." With future profits looking poor, capital investment and construction slowed or completely ceased. In the face of bad loans and worsening future prospects, the surviving banks became even more conservative in their lending. A vicious cycle developed and the downward spiral accelerated. The liquidation of debt could not keep up with the fall of prices which it caused. Paradoxically, the more the debtors paid off, the more they owed. This self-aggravating process turned a 1930 recession into a 1933 great depression. The great German economist Ludwig von Mises described the situation: "Credit expansion cannot increase the supply of real goods. It merely brings about a rearrangement. It diverts capital investment away from the course prescribed by the state of economic wealth and market conditions. It causes production to pursue paths which it would not follow unless the economy were to acquire an increase in material goods. As a result, the upswing lacks a solid base. It is not a real prosperity. It is illusory prosperity. It did not develop from an increase in economic wealth, i.e. the accumulation of savings made available for productive investment. Rather, it arose because the credit expansion created the illusion of such an increase. Sooner or later, it must become apparent that this economic situation is built on sand."

Booker T. Washington

(1856-1915) Was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community. Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His base was the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college in Alabama. As lynchings in the South reached a peak in 1895, Washington gave a speech, known as the "Atlanta compromise," which brought him national fame. He called for black progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than trying to challenge directly the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. Washington mobilized a nationwide coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, and white philanthropists and politicians, with a long-term goal of building the community's economic strength and pride by a focus on self-help and schooling. Black militants in the North, led by W.E.B. Du Bois, at first supported the Atlanta compromise, but later became more radical and moved on.

Woodrow Wilson

(1856-1924) Was an American Democrat party politician and academic who served as the 28th president from 1913 to 1921. Born in Virginia, he spent his early years in Augusta, Georgia and Columbia, South Carolina. Wilson earned a PhD in political science at Johns Hopkins University, and served as a professor and scholar at various institutions before being chosen as President of Princeton University, a position he held from 1902 to 1910. In the election of 1910, he was elected Governor of New Jersey, from whence he ran for president in 1912. He was the first Southerner elected as president since Zachary Taylor in 1848, and Wilson was a leading force in the Progressive Movement, bolstered by his Democratic Party's winning control of both the White House and Congress in 1912. He oversaw the passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933. Included among these were the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and the Federal Farm Loan Act. Having taken office one month after ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment, Wilson called a special session of Congress, whose work culminated in the Revenue Act of 1913, introducing an income tax and lowering tariffs. He saw through the imposition of an 8-hour workday for railroads; and believed that charity efforts should be removed from the private domain and "made the imperative legal duty of the whole," a position which, according to Robert M. Saunders, seemed to indicate that Wilson "was laying the groundwork for the modern welfare state." Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Wilson maintained a policy of neutrality, while pursuing a more aggressive policy in dealing with Mexico's civil war. In the election of 1916, by a narrow margin, he became the first Democrat since Andrew Jackson to be elected to two consecutive terms. Wilson's second term was dominated by American entry into World War I. In April 1917, when Germany had resumed unrestricted submarine warfare and sent the Zimmermann Telegram, Wilson asked Congress to declare war in order to "make the world safe for democracy." Loaning billions of dollars to Britain, France, and other Allies, the US aided their finance of the war effort. Through the Selective Service Act, conscription sent 10,000 freshly trained soldiers to France per day by the summer of 1918. On the home front, he raised income taxes, borrowing billions of dollars through the public's purchase of Liberty Bonds. He set up the War Industries Board, promoted labor union cooperation, regulating agriculture and food production through the Lever Act, and nationalized the railroads by granting to the Secretary of the Treasury direct control of the nation's railroad system.

Warren G. Harding

(1865-1923) Was the 29th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1921 until his death in 1923. At the time of his death, he was one of the most popular presidents, He conducted a front porch campaign, remaining for the most part in Marion and allowing the people to come to him. He won in a landslide over Democrat James M. Cox and Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs, running on a theme of "Return to Normalcy" (after WWI) and becoming the first sitting senator to be elected president. Harding appointed a number of well-regarded figures, including Andrew Mellon at the Treasury, Herbert Hoover at Commerce, and Charles Evans Hughes at the State Department. A major foreign policy achievement came with the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922, in which the world's major naval powers agreed on a naval limitations program that lasted a decade. Two members of his cabinet were implicated in corruption: Interior Secretary Albert Fall and Attorney General Harry Daugherty, who took part in the Teapot Dome scandal. The subsequent exposure of scandals eroded his popular regard, as did revelations of an affair by Nan Britton, one of his mistresses. In historical rankings of the U.S. presidents, Harding is often rated among the worst. The resulting scandals did not fully emerge until after Harding's death, nor did word of his extramarital affairs, but both greatly damaged his reputation. Harding died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by heart disease in San Francisco while on a western speaking tour; he was succeeded by his vice president, Calvin Coolidge.

W.E.B. DuBois

(1868-1963) Was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. After completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. Du Bois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Du Bois rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T. Washington which provided that Southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite. He referred to this group as the Talented Tenth and believed that African Americans needed the chances for advanced education to develop its leadership. Racism was the main target of Du Bois's polemics, and he strongly protested against lynching, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination in education and employment. His cause included people of color everywhere, particularly Africans and Asians in colonies. He was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to fight for independence of African colonies from European powers. Du Bois made several trips to Europe, Africa and Asia. After World War I, he surveyed the experiences of American black soldiers in France and documented widespread bigotry in the United States military. Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life. He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament. The US' Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death.

Herbert Hoover

(1874-1964) As the 31st president from 1929 to 1933, his ambitious programs were overwhelmed by the Great Depression, that seemed to get worse every year despite the increasingly large-scale interventions he made in the economy. Hoover had long been a proponent of the concept that public-private cooperation was the way to achieve high long-term growth. However, Hoover did fear that too much government intervention would undermine long-term individuality and self-reliance, which he considered essential to the nation's future. Both his ideals and the economy were put to the test with the onset of the Great Depression. Although many people at the time and for decades afterwards denounced Hoover for taking a hands-off ("laissezfaire") approach to the Depression, he actually pursued an activist policy. Hoover said he rejected Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon's suggested "leave-it-alone" approach, and called many business leaders to Washington to urge them not to lay off workers or cut wages. Libertarian economist Murray Rothbard argues that Hoover was actually the initiator of what came to be the New Deal. Hoover engaged in many unprecedented public works programs, including an increase in the Federal Buildings program of over $400 million and the establishment of the Division of Public Construction to spur public works planning. Hoover himself granted more subsidies to ship construction through the Federal Shipping Board and asked for a further $175 million appropriation for public works; this was followed in July 1930 with the expenditure of a giant $915 million public works program, including a Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. He reluctantly approved the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which sent foreign trade spiralling down. He believed it was essential to balance the budget despite falling tax revenue, so he raised the tax rates. The economy kept falling and unemployment rates rose to about 25%. This downward spiral, plus his support for prohibition policies that had lost favor, set the stage for Hoover's overwhelming defeat in 1932. He was defeated in a landslide in 1932 by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, and thereafter Democrats repeatedly used his Depression record to attack conservatism and justify more regulation of the economy.

Pancho Villa

(1878-1923) Was a Mexican Revolutionary general and one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution. As commander of the División del Norte (Division of the North) in the Constitutionalist Army, he was a militarylandowner (caudillo) of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Given the area's size and mineral wealth, it provided him with extensive resources. Villa was also provisional Governor of Chihuahua in 1913 and 1914. Villa can be credited with decisive military victories leading to the ousting of Victoriano Huerta from the presidency in July 1914. Later, Villa's heretofore undefeated División del Norte engaged the military forces of Carranza under Carrancista general Álvaro Obregón and was defeated in the 1915 Battle of Celaya. Villa was again defeated by Carranza, 1 November 1915, at the Second Battle of Agua Prieta 1 November 1915, after which Villa's army collapsed as a significant military force. Villa subsequently led a raid against the US-Mexican border town in the Battle of Columbus in March 1916. They attacked a detachment of the 13th US Cavalry Regiment, burned the town, and seized 100 horses and mules and other military supplies. Eighteen Americans and about 80 Villistas were killed. The U.S. government sent U.S. Army General John J. ("Black Jack") Pershing to capture Villa in an unsuccessful nine-month incursion into Mexican sovereign territory (Pancho Villa Expedition) that ended when the United States entered World War I and Pershing was recalled. Villa was assassinated in 1923.

Joseph Stalin

(1878-1953) Was, along with Lenin and Trotsky, one of the principle participants in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Stalin was appointed to the grandiose but unimportant position of General Secretary of the party's Central Committee as a reward for his service but also to keep him away from real power. Yet, he managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Lenin by amassing detailed inciminatory files on all party members. He abolished the New Economic Policy introduced by Lenin in the early 1920s with a highly centralized command economy, launching a period of industrialization and collectivization that resulted in the rapid transformation of the USSR from an agrarian society into an industrial power. These economic changes were only accomplished with the imprisonment and death of millions of people in the Gulag labour camps in Siberia and the deliberate and systematic starvation of the Ukraine, whose farmers had resisted collectivization. The resulting disruption in food production contributed to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932-33. Between 1934 and 1939 he organized and led the "Great Purge", a massive campaign of repression of the party, government, armed forces and intelligentsia, in which millions of so-called "enemies of the working class" were imprisoned, exiled or executed, often without due process. In August 1939, Stalin entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that divided their influence and territory within Eastern Europe, resulting in their invasion of Poland in September of that year. Germany launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Stalin led the Soviet Union through its post-war reconstruction phase, which saw a significant rise in tension with the Western world that would later be known as the Cold War. During this period, the USSR became the second country in the world to successfully develop a nuclear weapon. In the years following his death, Stalin and his regime have been condemned on numerous occasions. He remains a controversial figure today, with many regarding him as a tyrant. However, popular opinion within the Russian Federation is mixed. The exact number of deaths caused by Stalin's regime is still a subject of debate, but it is widely agreed to be in the order of around 20 million.

Douglas MacArthur

(1880-1964) Was an American five-star general and Chief of Staff of the US Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. In 1941 MacArthur was appointed commander of US Army Forces in the Far East. A series of disasters followed, starting with the destruction of his air forces on 8 December 1941, and the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese. MacArthur's forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur, his family and his staff left nearby Corregidor Island in PT boats and escaped to Australia, where MacArthur became Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area. For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor. After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, he fulfilled a promise to return to the Philippines. He officially accepted Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945, aboard USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay, and managed the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. As the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic, political and social changes. He led the UN forces in the Korean War until he was removed from command by President Harry S Truman on 11 April 1951 for insubordination. He later became Chairman of the Board of Remington Rand.

Franklin Roosevelt

(1882-1945) Commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and dominated his party after 1932 as a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the US during a time of worldwide economic depression and a total war. His program for relief, recovery, and reform, known as the New Deal, involved a great expansion of the federal government's role in the economy. Relief was urgently needed by tens of millions of unemployed. Recovery meant boosting the economy back to normal. Reform meant long-term fixes of what was wrong, especially with the financial and banking systems. Through Roosevelt's series of radio talks, known as fireside chats, he presented his proposals directly to the American public. In 1934, FDR paid a visit to retired Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who mused about the President: "A second class intellect. But a first class temperament." As a dominant leader of the Democratic Party, he built the New Deal Coalition that brought together and united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnics, African Americans, and rural white Southerners in support of the party. The Coalition significantly realigned American politics after 1932 and defining American liberalism throughout the middle third of the 20th century. Historians categorized Roosevelt's program as "relief, recovery and reform."

Harry Truman

(1884-1972) Missouri Democratic machine politician who served as Franklin D. Roosevelt's vice-president. succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945 upon the death of Roosevelt. He was president during the final months of World War II, and gave final approval to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman was elected in his own right in 1948. He presided over the increased tensions with the Soviet Union following the Potsdam Conference, marking the start of the Cold War. Truman helped found the United Nations in 1945, issued the Truman Doctrine in 1947 to contain Communism, and got the $13 billion Marshall Plan enacted to rebuild Western Europe. The Soviet Union, a wartime ally, became a peacetime enemy in the Cold War that emerged during Truman's administration. Truman oversaw the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 and the creation of NATO in 1949. He was unable to stop Communists under Mao Tse-tung from taking over China. When communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, he sent U.S. troops and gained UN approval for the Korean War. After initial successes in Korea, however, the UN forces were thrown back by Chinese intervention, and the conflict was stalemated throughout the final years of Truman's presidency.

Dwight Eisenhower

(1890-1969) He was a five-star general in the US Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942-43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944-45 from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first Supreme Commander of NATO. After the war, he successfully ran as a Republican in the presidential race of 1952 and served from 1952-61. After the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite in 1957, Eisenhower authorized the establishment of NASA, which led to the space race. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Eisenhower condemned the Israeli, British and French invasion of Egypt, and forced them to withdraw. He also condemned the Soviet invasion during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but took no action. In 1958, Eisenhower sent 15,000 U.S. troops to Lebanon to prevent the pro-Western government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution. Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a summit meeting with the Soviets collapsed because of the U-2 Incident involving an American high-altitude spy plane shot down over Soviet territory. In his January 17, 1961 farewell address to the nation, Eisenhower expressed his concerns about the dangers of massive military spending, particularly deficit spending and government contracts to private military manufacturers, and coined the term "military- industrial complex."

Huey Long

(1893-1935) Nicknamed "The Kingfish," Long was a Democrat politician who served as governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a member of the US Senate from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. He was a bombastic and outspoken populist who denounced the rich and the banks. As the political boss of the state, he commanded wide networks of supporters and was willing to take forceful action. Long is best known for his "Share Our Wealth" program, created in 1934 under the motto "Every Man a King." It proposed wealth redistribution measures to curb the poverty and homelessness widespread nationwide during the Great Depression. To stimulate the economy, Long advocated federal spending on public works, schools and colleges, and old age pensions. He was an ardent critic of the Federal Reserve System. Under Long's leadership, hospitals and educational institutions were expanded, charity hospitals were set up that provided health care for the poor, massive highway construction and free bridges brought an end to rural isolation, and free textbooks were provided for schoolchildren. He remains a controversial figure in Louisiana history, with critics and supporters debating if he was a leftist dictator, a demagogue, or a populist. Long claimed that his ideological inspiration for Share Our Wealth came not from Karl Marx but from the Bible and the Declaration of Independence. Long is oft quoted as saying, "When Fascism comes to America it will be called anti-Fascism," which was often confused with the words of Minnesota-born novelist Sinclair Lewis, who said: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." Long believed that ending the Great Depression and staving off violent revolution required a radical restructuring of the national economy and elimination of disparities of wealth, retaining the essential features of the capitalist system. After the Senate rejected one of his wealth redistribution bills, Long told them, "[A] mob is coming to hang the other ninety-five of you damn scoundrels and I'm undecided whether to stick here with you or go out and lead them." With the Senate unwilling to support his proposals, in February 1934 Long formed a national political organization, the Share Our Wealth Society, which was intended to operate outside of and in opposition to the Democratic Party and the Roosevelt administration. By 1935, the society had over 7.5 million members. Some historians believe that pressure from Long and his organization contributed to Roosevelt's increasing leftism after 1935. Roosevelt enacted the Second New Deal, including the Social Security Act, the Works Progress Administration, the National Labor Relations Board, Aid to Dependent Children, the National Youth Administration, and the Wealth Tax Act of 1935. In private, Roosevelt admitted to trying to "steal Long's thunder." In a letter to the American ambassador to Germany, Roosevelt wrote: "Long plans to be a candidate of the Hitler type for the presidency in 1936. He thinks he will have a hundred votes at the Democratic convention. Then he will set up as an independent with Southern and mid-western Progressives...Thus he hopes to defeat the Democratic Party and put in a reactionary Republican. That would bring the country to such a state by 1940 that Long thinks he would be made dictator. There are in fact some Southerners looking that way, and some Progressives drifting that way...Thus it is an ominous situation."

United Nations

A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. The United Nations was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Allied Big Four (the US, the UK, the Soviet Union and China) at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944. The UN Charter was drafted at a conference in San Francisco between April-June 1945; this charter took effect 24 October 1945, and the UN began operation. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, and experiences extraterritoriality. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict. The UN's mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in major actions in Korea and the Congo, as well as approving the creation of the state of Israel in 1947. The organization's membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization in the 1960s, and by the 1970s its budget for economic and social development programs far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military and peacekeeping missions across the world with varying degrees of success.

Dawes Plan of Reparations

At the conclusion of World War I, the Allied and Associate Powers included in the Treaty of Versailles a plan for reparations to be paid by Germany. Germany was required to pay 20 billion gold marks, as an interim measure, while a final amount was decided upon. In 1921, the London Schedule of Payments established the German reparation figure at 132 billion gold marks (separated into various classes, of which only 50 billion gold marks was required to be paid). However, by 1923 Germany had defaulted on its ability to deliver further amounts of coal, timber, and steel in line with its reparation quotas. In response to this, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr River valley industrial area inside the borders of Germany. This occupation of the center of the German coal and steel industries outraged the German people. They passively resisted the occupation, and the economy suffered, significantly contributing to the three-year period of hyperinflation that followed in Germany. By November 1923, the American dollar was worth 4.2 TRILLION German marks! Often prices doubled in a few hours. A wild stampede developed to buy goods and get rid of money. By late 1923 it took 200 billion marks buy a loaf of bread. The Dawes Plan was an attempt in 1924 to solve the WWI reparations problem. The plan provided for an end to the Allied occupation, and a staggered payment plan for Germany's payment of war reparations. Because the Plan resolved a serious international crisis, Dawes shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his work. It was an interim measure and proved unworkable. The Young Plan was adopted in 1929 to replace it.

The Central Powers

At the start of the 20th century, two power blocs emerged from the flurry of secret alliances between the European Great Powers, all fueled by the arms race, fear of growing Russian might, and toxic paranoia that pervaded international relations in the era. It was these alliances that, at the relatively inconsequential assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo in 1914, drew all the major European powers into the conflict. The Central Powers, also known as the Triple Alliance, consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary and, initially, Italy. When Italy dropped out in favor of neutrality, its place was taken by the Ottoman Empire and later Bulgaria, and was one of the two main factions during WWI (1914- 18). With the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans in the 19th century, Slavic discontent grew, and both Russia and Austria-Hungary saw an opportunity to expand into the region. Of the two powers, Russia was better placed for gains since it was both Orthodox confessionally and Slavophone linguistically, like the Serbs. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, AustroHungarian forces occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 1878 and the empire eventually annexed Bosnia in 1908, leaving Russia feeling cheated of its victory over the Turks. At the beginning of the twentieth century Serbia was economically a satellite of the Habsburg empire, its major export being pork, most of which was bought by Austria. When Serbia started trying to evade economic and political control by the Habsburgs, and build links with other countries, particularly Bulgaria and France, Vienna decided to punish the Serbs with economic sanctions (The Pig War of 1806-08) and displays of Austrian power (the deliberately provocative military visit of Archduke Franz Ferdinand coincident with the anniversary of the 1389 Battle of Kossovo in which the Serbs lost their independence to the expanding Ottoman Empire). The restive Serbs were a hotbed of anarchist activity at the time of the archduke's visit to Sarajevo, the most notorious of its many factions was a secret society known as Young Serbia. On the day of the archduke's visit, Young Serbia anarchists lined the parade route, with plans to carry out the assassination. A young man named Gavrilo Princip succeeded in shooting the archduke and his wife as their open-topped limousine rolled past, killing both within moments. This act touched off the World War I: Austria declared war on Serbia; Germany declared war on Russia and France; Great Britain declared war on Germany; Montenegro declared war on Austria; on and on and on the dominoes fell with over 46 declarations of war between 28 July 1914 and 11 Nov. 1918. It faced and was defeated by the Allied Powers that had formed around the Triple Entente, after which it was dissolved. The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria did not join until after World War I had begun. This was the first major war in Europe between industrialized countries, and the first time in Western Europe that the results of industrialization (for example, mass production) had been dedicated to war. The result of this industrialized warfare, which provided modern weapons, coupled with outdated 18th - 19th century tactics and strategies, led to an unprecedented casualty level: eight and a half million soldiers killed, an estimated 21 million wounded, and approximately 10 million civilian deaths. This era has rightfully been called "The Powderkeg of Europe."

4, 5, & 9 Power Pacts (or Treaties)

By the Four-Power Treaty, all parties agreed to maintain the status quo in the Pacific, by respecting the Pacific holdings of the other countries signing the agreement, not seeking further territorial expansion, and mutual consultation with each other in the event of a dispute over territorial possessions. The Five-Power Treaty, also known as the Washington Naval Treaty, agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. It limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers and submarines, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited to 10,000 tons displacement. By the mid-1930s, Japan and Italy renounced the treaties, making naval arms limitation an increasingly untenable position for the other signatories. The Nine-Power Treaty affirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China as per the Open Door Policy.

League of Nations

By the time the fighting ended in November 1918, anti-war sentiment rose across the world; WWI was described as "the war to end all wars", and its possible causes were vigorously investigated. The causes identified included arms races, alliances, militaristic nationalism, and secret diplomacy. One proposed remedy was the creation of an international organisation whose aim was to prevent future war through disarmament, open diplomacy, international co-operation, restrictions on the right to wage war, and penalties that made war unattractive. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members, but its greatest proponent, the US, never joined. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. After a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain, and others. The onset of the WWII showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years; the United Nations (UN) replaced it after the end of the Second World War on 20 April 1946 and inherited a number of agencies and organisations founded by the League.

F.D.I.C

During the financial Panics of 1893 and 1907, many banks filed for bankruptcy due to bank runs caused by panicky depositors stampeding to withdraw their precious assets before their banks closed its doors. Both of the panics renewed discussion on deposit insurance. In 1893, William Jennings Bryan even presented a bill to Congress proposing a national deposit insurance fund. No action was taken until after 1907, when eight states independently established deposit insurance funds. Due to the lax regulation of banks and the widespread inability of banks to branch out; small, local banks (often with poor financial health) grew in numbers, especially in the western and southern states. The situation came to a head during the Great Depression, which devastated American banking and caused widespread alarm over the entire banking system; in the years before the FDIC's creation, more than one-third of all banks failed due to bank runs. Small banks in rural areas were especially affected. Reassurances and regulations by the government failed to assuage depositors' fears. From 1893 to the FDIC's creation in 1933, 150 bills were submitted in Congress proposing deposit insurance. Finally, in June 1933, Roosevelt signed the 1933 Banking Act, creating the FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a US government corporation providing deposit insurance to depositors in US banks. The initial plan set by Congress in 1934 was to insure deposits up to $2,500 ($44,297 today) adopting of a more generous, long-term plan after six months. However, the latter plan was abandoned for an increase of the insurance limit to $5,000 ($88,595 today). Since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2011, the FDIC insures deposits in member banks up to US$250,000 per ownership category. The FDIC and its reserves are not funded by public funds; member banks' insurance dues are the FDIC's primary source of funding. The FDIC also has a US$100 billion line of credit with the US Treasury Department. Only banks are insured by the FDIC; credit unions are insured up to the same insurance limit by the National Credit Union Administration, which is also a government agency.

"Flappers"

Flappers were a generation of young women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms. While flappers may have had their origins in the liberal period of the Roaring Twenties, the social, political turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange that followed the end of World War I, as well as the export of American jazz culture to Europe, they were more a manifestation of the decline of morality that followed the horrors witnessed by the world during WWI. In addition, flappers were a reaction against the straitlaced and oppressive controls placed upon women by society in the previous, Victorian era (which was written about by Edith Wharton and others). Many flappers owed their newfound emancipation to the decline in the male population of Europe and the US following the war resulting in statistically fewer men to dominate and control them. And finally, the Spanish flu epidemic which struck in 1918, inspired in young people a feeling that life is short and could end at any moment. Therefore, young women wanted to spend their youth enjoying their life and freedom rather than just staying home and waiting for a man to marry them. The most iconic flappers of the era were silent-era move stars Clara Bow, who was dubbed the "It" Girl (whatever 'it' was, she most certainly embodied the essence of it !), and Louise Brooks, whose shiny black bangs became the de rigeur hairstyle of the flappers generally (Brooks was the model for the character of "Nico Robin" of the modern manga/anime series "One Piece"). These girls were "the social butterfly type... the frivolous, scantily-clad, jazzing flapper, irresponsible and undisciplined, to whom a dance, a new hat, or a man with a car, were of more importance than the fate of nations".

Tennessee Valley Authority (T.V.A)

Is a federally owned corporation in the US created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region, large parts of which were still not electrified or telephonically connected to the outside world as late as the 1930s. The TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to rapidly modernize the region's economy and society. During the 1920s and the Great Depression years, some Americans began to support the idea of public ownership of utilities, particularly hydroelectric power facilities. However, the concept of government-owned generation facilities selling to publicly owned distribution utilities was controversial and remains so today. Economic libertarians argue that the government should not participate in the electricity generation business, fearing government ownership would lead to the misuse of hydroelectric sites as well as lead to the unwarrented growth of government at the expense of individual liberty.

Potsdam Conference

July 17-Aug. 2, 1945. Harry Truman, Clement Attlee, and Stalin gathered to decide how to administer the defeated Nazi Germany, which had unconditionally surrendered nine weeks earlier, on 8 May (V-E Day). The agenda included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war. At the preceeding Yalta Conference, Roosevelt had brushed off warnings of a potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship in part of Europe. He explained that "I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man," which was proven to be disastrously wrong. Truman, however, was not fooled by "Uncle Joe" Stalin's charm and reversed many of his predecessor's concessions to the Soviet dictator during the course of the Potsdam talks. Central to this conference were issues relating to Japan's actions in East Asia. Vietnam was divided, and the US and China agreed to the terms of Japan's surrender which would follow the dropping of the 2 atomic bombs on August 6 and 9.

Sacco & Vanzetti Trial

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-born American anarchists who were convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company on April 15, 1920, in South Braintree, Massachusetts, and were executed by the electric chair seven years later at Charlestown State Prison. Both adhered to a notoriously violent anarchist movement, the Galleanists, that advocated relentless warfare against what they perceived as a violent and oppressive government. The trial itself was turbulent and divisive with evidence tampering, coaching, conflicting testimony, and bias running rampant. Since many of the witnesses spoke either broken English or none at all, the cross examinations became a grueling farce, since the court-appointed translator didn't speak the same dialect of Italian as many of the witnesses. The case became a world-wide cause celebre since it appeared to many that the men were being tried as much for being foreign-born anarchists as they were for robbery and murder. In any event, the case reflected the growing unease and resentment many native-born Americans were feeling about the overwhelming wave of Southern and Eastern European immigration to the US since the 1890s.

Federal Reserve Act

Of December 1913, and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, is a Congressional act that created and established the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the US, and which created the authority to issue Federal Reserve Notes (now commonly known as the U.S. Dollar) and Federal Reserve Bank Notes as legal tender. The Federal Reserve Act created a system of private and public entities. There were to be at least eight and no more than twelve private regional Federal Reserve banks. Twelve were established, and each had various branches, a board of directors, and district boundaries. The Federal Reserve Board, consisting of seven members, was created as the governing body of the Fed. Each member is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Also created as part of the Federal Reserve System was a 12-member Federal Advisory Committee and a single new United States currency, the Federal Reserve Note. The Federal Reserve Act created a national currency and a monetary system that could respond effectively to the stresses in the banking system and create a stable financial system. There has been an enduring economic and political debate regarding the costs and benefits of central banking. Since the inception of a central bank in the United States, there were multiple opposing views to this type of economic system. Opposition was based on protectionist sentiment; a central bank would serve a handful of financiers at the expense of small producers, businesses, farmers and consumers, and could destabilize the economy through speculation and inflation. This created even further controversy over who would select the decision-makers in charge of the Federal Reserve. Proponents argued that a strong banking system could provide enough credit for a growing economy and avoid economic depressions. Other critical views included the belief that the bill gave too much power to the federal government after the senate revised the bill to create 12 board members who were each appointed by the president.

Ops: TORCH, HUSKY & OVERLORD

Operation TORCH, which started on 8 November 1942, was the British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. The Soviet Union had pressed the US and UK to start operations in Europe and open a second front to reduce the pressure of German forces on the Soviet troops. An attack on French North Africa was proposed, which would clear the Axis powers from North Africa, improve naval control of the Mediterranean Sea, and prepare for an invasion of Southern Europe in 1943. Operation HUSKY, the codename for the Allied invasion of Sicily, began on the night of 9/10 July 1943, and ended on 17 August. It was followed by a six-week land campaign and was the beginning of the Italian Campaign in which Alllied forces fought their way north from the toe of the Italian peninsular boot. The Allies drove Axis air, land and naval forces from the island and the Mediterranean sea lanes were opened for Allied merchant ships for the first time since 1941. The Italian fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, was toppled from power in the course of the campaign. Hitler was forced to divert forces to Italy, resulting in a reduction of German strength on the Eastern Front. Operation OVERLORD was the code name for the successful Allied invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (also known as "D-Day") with the Normandy landings. A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, resulting in the Battle of Normandy, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.

The New Deal

The New Deal was a series of liberal social programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1938, and a few that came later. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians refer to as the "3 Rs", Relief, Recovery, and Reform: relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. Many historians distinguish between a "First New Deal" (1933-34) and a "Second New Deal" (1935-38), with the second one more liberal and more controversial. The "First New Deal" (1933-34) dealt with the pressing banking crises through the Emergency Banking Act and the 1933 Banking Act. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration provided $500 million ($9.2 billion today) for relief operations by states and cities, while the short-lived Civil Works Administration (CWA) gave localities money to operate make-work projects in 1933-34. The Securities Act of 1933 was enacted to prevent a repeated stock market crash. The controversial work of the National Recovery Administration was also part of the First New Deal. The "Second New Deal" in 1935-38 included the Wagner Act to promote labor unions, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program (which made the federal government by far the largest single employer in the nation), the Social Security Act, and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. Many New Deal programs remain active, with some still operating under the original names, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The largest programs still in existence today are the Social Security System and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The New Deal represented a significant shift in politics and domestic policy. It especially led to greatly increased federal regulation of the economy. It also marked the beginning of complex social programs and growing power of labor unions. The effects of the New Deal remain a source of controversy and debate among economists and historians.

Scopes Monkey Trial

The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any statefunded school. The trial was deliberately staged to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to $1,352 in 2015), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity, as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the big-name lawyers who had agreed to represent each side. William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential candidate, argued for the prosecution, while Clarence Darrow, the famed defense attorney, spoke for Scopes. The trial publicized the Fundamentalist- Modernist Controversy, which set Modernists, who said evolution was not inconsistent with religion, against Fundamentalists, who said the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge. The case was thus seen as both a theological contest and a trial on whether "modern science" should be taught in schools. The case also marked the beginning of the political left's assault on religion, since it opposes Marxist materialism and the glorification of the state.

The Entente Powers (aka: "Allies")

The Triple Entente (from French entente, or "friendship, understanding, agreement") was the secret treaty linking Great Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente on 31 August 1907. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, Prussia defeated France and forced it to cede the valuable Alsace-Lorraine border region to the new German Empire. Ever since, relations had been at an all-time low. France, worried about the escalating military development of Germany, began building up its own war industries and army to deter to German aggression. As another measure, France developed a strong bond with Russia by ratifying the Franco-Russian Alliance (1894), which was designed to create a strong counter to the Triple Alliance. France′s main concerns were to protect against an attack from Germany and regain AlsaceLorraine. France also effectively ended Great Britain's isolation from Europe in roughly the same time period by engaging it with the Entente Cordiale, the predecessor of the Triple Entente. The understanding between the three powers, supplemented by agreements with Japan and Portugal, constituted a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy, though Italy ended its alliance with the Central Powers, arguing that Germany and Austria-Hungary started the war and that the alliance was only defensive in nature. Instead, Italy joined the Entente Powers, with the Treaty of London (1915). Japan was another important member. Belgium, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, and Romania were affiliated members of the Entente. Historians continue to debate the importance of the alliance system in igniting the Great War.

Western & Eastern Fronts

The Western Front was the main theatre of war during WWI. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Following the race to the sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained essentially unchanged for most of the war. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun nests, barbed wire, and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties on the attackers and counter-attacking defenders. As a result, no significant advances were made. Among the most costly of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun, in 1916, with a combined 700,000 casualties (all estimated); the Battle of the Somme, also in 1916, with more than a million casualties; the Battle of Passchendaele, in 1917, with roughly 600,000 casualties; and the Battle of Argonne Forest from Sept. to the armistice in Nov. 1918, with 318,000 casualties. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the principal engagement of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) during World War I and was the largest in US military history, involving 1.2 million American soldiers. The battle cost 28,000 German lives and 26,277 American lives, making it the largest and bloodiest operation of World War I for the (AEF), which was commanded by General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing. American losses were exacerbated by the inexperience of many of the troops and tactics used during the early phases of the operation. In an effort to break the deadlock, this front saw the introduction of new military technology, including poison gas, aircraft and tanks. But it was only after the adoption of improved tactics that some degree of mobility was restored. The German Army's Spring Offensive of 1918 was made possible by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that marked the end of the conflict on the Eastern Front. Using the recently introduced infiltration tactics, the German armies advanced nearly 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the west, which marked the deepest advance by either side since 1914 and very nearly succeeded in forcing a breakthrough. In spite of the generally stagnant nature of this front, this theatre would prove decisive. The inexorable advance of the Allied armies during the second half of 1918 persuaded the German commanders that defeat was inevitable, and the government was forced to sue for conditions of an armistice, signed on 11 November 1918 ("...on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month..."). The terms of peace were agreed upon with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The Eastern Front of WWI was a theatre of operations that encompassed at its greatest extent the entire frontier between the Russian Empire and Romania on one side and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire on the other. It stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, included most of Eastern Europe and stretched deep into Central Europe as well. By 1915, the German and Austro-Hungarian armies were on the advance against Russia forcing it to retreat from Poland. Grand Duke Nicholas was sacked from his position as the commander-in-chief and replaced by the Tsar himself. Several offensives against the Germans in 1916 failed, yet the Brusilov Offensive was a highly successful operation against Austria-Hungary. Also on the Eastern Front, the Kingdom of Romania entered the war in August 1916. The Allies promised Transylvania (which was part of Austria-Hungary) in return for Romanian support. The Romanian Army invaded Transylvania and had initial successes, but was forced to stop and was pushed back by the Germans and Austro-Hungarians when Bulgaria attacked them in the south. Meanwhile, a revolution occurred in Russia in February 1917 (one of the several causes being the hardships of the war). Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate and a Russian Provisional Government was founded, with Alexander Kerensky as its leader. The newly formed Russian Republic continued to fight the war alongside Romania and the rest of the Allied Powers until it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in October 1917. Kerensky oversaw the July Offensive, which was largely a failure and caused a collapse in the Russian Army. The new government established by the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, taking it out of the war and making large territorial concessions. Romania was also forced to surrender and signed a similar treaty, though both of the treaties were nullified with the surrender of the Central Powers in November 1918.

Social Security Act

The original Social Security Act (Act of August 14, 1935) [H. R. 7260] was signed into law by Roosevelt in 1935, and the current version of the Act, as amended, encompasses several social welfare and social insurance programs. The act provides for the general welfare by establishing a system of Federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several States to make more adequate provision for aged persons, blind persons, dependent and crippled children, maternal and child welfare, public health, and the administration of their unemployment compensation laws; to establish a Social Security Board; to raise revenue; and for other purposes. Social Security is funded through payroll taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax (FICA) or Self Employed Contributions Act Tax (SECA). Tax deposits are collected by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and are formally entrusted to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, or the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund which make up the Social Security Trust Funds

The Lusitania

The sinking of the Cunard ocean liner RMS Lusitania occurred on Friday, 7 May 1915 during WWI, as Germany waged submarine warfare in the north Atlantic and the British navy blockaded Germany. The ship had been heading back to Britain from New York City when it was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-20 and sank in 18 minutes. The vessel went down 11 miles (18 km) off the coast of Ireland, killing 1,198, including 128 Americans, and leaving 761 survivors out of an original 1959 passengers and crew. The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany, contributed to the American entry into World War I and became an iconic symbol in military recruiting campaigns of why the war was being fought. Lusitania had the misfortune to fall victim to torpedo attack relatively early in the war, before tactics for evading submarines were properly implemented or understood. The contemporary investigations in both the UK and the US into the precise causes of the ship's loss were obstructed by the needs of wartime secrecy and a propaganda campaign to ensure all blame fell upon Germany. Argument over whether the ship was a legitimate military target raged back and forth throughout the war as both sides made misleading claims about the ship. At the time she was sunk, she was carrying a large quantity of rifle cartridges and non-explosive shell casings, as well as civilian passengers. Several attempts have been made over the years since the sinking to dive to the wreck seeking information about precisely how the ship sank, and argument continues to the present day.

Great Depression

The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; however, in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the world's economy can decline. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Roosevelt's administration relied on the advice of leftwing economists like John Maynard Keynes, who argued that the federal government should take up the slack in demand by engaging in deficit spending, thus injecting money into the economy by acting as one, huge "aggregate customer." Hence, the rationale behind the New Deal spending spree.

Blitzkrieg

The word, meaning "lightning war", in its strategic sense describes a series of quick and decisive short battles to deliver a knockout blow to an enemy state before it could fully mobilize. Tactically, blitzkrieg is a coordinated military effort by tanks, motorized infantry, artillery and aircraft, to create an overwhelming local superiority in combat power, to defeat the opponent and break through its defenses. Blitzkrieg as used by Germany had considerable psychological, or "terror" elements, such as the Jericho Trompete, a noise-making siren on the Junkers Ju 87 dive-bomber, to affect the morale of enemy forces. The devices were largely removed when the enemy became used to the noise after the Battle of France in 1940 and instead bombs sometimes had whistles attached Blitzkrieg is also defined as an attacking force spearheaded by a dense concentration of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations with close air support, breaks through the opponent's line of defense by short, fast, powerful attacks and then dislocates the defenders, using speed and surprise to encircle them. Much of the speed and effectiveness of Blitzkrieg tactics were accomplished with the widespread and excessive use of methamphetamines by the German Wehrmacht (army) troops. Blitzkrieg tactics were credited for the spectacular conquest of Poland in 1939 as well as the rapid bypassing of the Maginot Line leading to the collapse of France in 1940.

A. Mitchell Palmer

Was Attorney General of the US from 1919 to 1921. He is best known for overseeing the Palmer Raids during the Red Scare of 1919-20. The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted by the US Department of Justice to capture, arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States. The raids and arrests occurred in November 1919 and January 1920 under the leadership of Palmer, hence their name. Though more than 500 foreign citizens were deported, including a number of prominent leftist leaders, Palmer's efforts were largely frustrated by officials at the US Department of Labor, which had authority for deportations and objected to Palmer's methods. The Palmer Raids occurred in the larger context of the Red Scare (see below). There were strikes that garnered national attention, race riots in more than 30 cities, and two sets of bombings in April and June 1919, including one bomb mailed by the Italian anarchist Galleanists to Palmer's home.

Immigration Act of 1924

Was a US federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the US as of the 1890 census, down from the 3% cap set by the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which used the Census of 1910. The law was primarily aimed at further restricting immigration of Southern Europeans and Eastern Europeans. In addition, it severely restricted the immigration of Africans and outright banned the immigration of Arabs and Asians (neither of which were actually immigrating to any appreciable degree). In the wake of the Post-World War I recession, many Americans believed that bringing in more immigrants from other nations would only make the unemployment rate higher. The Red Scare of 1919-1921 had fueled xenophobic fears of foreign radicals migrating to undermine American values and provoke an uprising like Russia's 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The number of immigrants entering the United States decreased for about a year from July 1919 to June 1920 but also doubled the year after that. Proponents of the Act sought to establish a distinct American identity by favoring native-born Americans over Jews, Southern Europeans, and Eastern Europeans in order to "maintain the racial preponderance of the basic strain on our people and thereby to stabilize the ethnic composition of the population". Reed told the Senate that earlier legislation "disregards entirely those of us who are interested in keeping American stock up to the highest standard - that is, the people who were born here". Southern/Eastern Europeans and Jews, he believed, arrived sick and starving and therefore less capable of contributing to the American economy, and unable to adapt to American culture.

Battle of Midway

Was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the US Navy under Admiral Chester Nimitz (who was born in Fredericksburg, Texas!) decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable. One military historian called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." The Japanese operation, like the attack on Pearl Harbor 6 months earlier, sought to eliminate the US as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan free rein in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Japanese hoped another demoralizing defeat would force the US to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific. After Midway and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's capacity to replace its losses in materiel (particularly aircraft carriers) and men (especially well-trained pilots and maintenance crewmen) rapidly became insufficient to cope with mounting casualties, while the US's massive industrial and training capabilities made losses far easier to replace. The Battle of Midway, along with the Guadalcanal Campaign, is widely considered a turning point in the Pacific War.

"Court Packing"

Was a legislative initiative proposed by Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Roosevelt's purpose was to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation that the court had ruled unconstitutional. The central provision of the bill would have granted the President power to appoint an additional Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six, for every member of the court over the age of 70 years and 6 months. During Roosevelt's first term the Supreme Court had struck down several New Deal measures as being unconstitutional. Roosevelt attempted to reverse this by changing the makeup of the court through the appointment of new additional justices who, he hoped, would rule that his legislative initiatives did not exceed his constitutional authority. Since the Constitution does not define the size of the Supreme Court, Roosevelt pointed out that it was within the power of the Congress to change it. The legislation was viewed by members of both parties as an attempt to game the system, and was opposed by many Democrats as well as Republicans. Ultimately, the Court Packing plan failed as a result of the apparently sudden jurisprudential shift of one associate justice who joined with the supporters of New Deal legislation. The sudden change in the direction of the Supreme Court was seen to be the result of the political pressure the president was exerting on the court. Some interpreted his reversal as an effort to maintain the Court's judicial independence by alleviating the political pressure to create a court more friendly to the New Deal.

Washington Conference

Was a military conference called by President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington, D.C., from November 1921 to February 1922. Conducted outside the auspices of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nations—the US, Japan, China, France, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal—regarding interests in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. Soviet Russia was not invited to the conference. It was the first international conference held in the United States and the first arms control conference in history. It resulted in three major treaties: Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty (more commonly known as the Washington Naval Treaty), the Nine-Power Treaty, and a number of smaller agreements. These treaties preserved peace during the 1920s but are also credited with enabling the rise of the Japanese Empire as a naval power leading up to World War II. At the end of WWI, the world's mood was for peace and disarmament throughout the 1920s; however, Britain still had the largest navy afloat but its big ships were becoming obsolete, and the Americans and Japanese were rapidly building expensive new warships. Britain and Japan were allies in a treaty that was due to expire in 1922. In addition, observers increasingly pointed to the American-Japanese rivalry for control of the Pacific Ocean as a long-term threat to world peace. The primary objective of the conference was to restrain Japanese naval expansion in the waters of the west Pacific, especially with regard to fortifications on strategically valuable islands. Their secondary objectives were, first, to limit Japanese expansion; second, to abrogate the Anglo-Japanese alliance as well as to agree upon a favorable naval tonnage ratio vis-à-vis Japan; and, third, to have the Japanese officially accept a continuation of the Open Door Policy in China

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Was a peace treaty signed in March 1918 between the new Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia and the Central Powers, that ended Russia's participation in WWI. The treaty was signed at Brest-Litovsk, after two months of negotiations. The treaty was forced on the Bolshevik government by the threat of further advances by German and Austrian forces. According to the treaty, Soviet Russia defaulted on all of Imperial Russia's commitments to the Triple Entente alliance. In the treaty, Bolshevik Russia ceded the Baltic States to Germany; they were meant to become German vassal states under German princelings. Russia also ceded its province of Kars Oblast in the South Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire and recognized the independence of Ukraine. Furthermore, Russia agreed to pay six billion German gold marks in reparations. Historian Spencer Tucker says, "The German General Staff had formulated extraordinarily harsh terms that shocked even the German negotiator." Poland was not mentioned in the treaty, as Germans refused to recognize the existence of any Polish representatives, which in turn led to Polish protests. When Germans later complained that the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was too harsh on them, the Allies (and historians favorable to the Allies) responded that it was more benign than Brest-Litovsk. The treaty was effectively nullified in November 1918, when Germany surrendered to the Allies. However, in the meantime, it did provide some relief to the Bolsheviks, who were already fighting the Russian Civil War against the tsarist forces of the "White Russians."

The Red Scare

Was a period in the early 1920s marked by a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism, due to real and imagined events; real events included those such as the Russian Revolution as well as the publicly stated goal of a worldwide communist revolution. At its height in 1919-1920, concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and the alleged spread of communism and anarchism in the American labor movement fueled a general sense of paranoia. The Scare had its origins in the hyper-nationalism of World War I as well as the Russian Revolution. At the war's end, following the October Revolution, American authorities saw the threat of Communist revolution in the strikes of organized labor, and then in the bomb campaigns directed by anarchist groups at political and business leaders. Fueled by labor unrest and the anarchist bombings, and then spurred on by A. Mitchell Palmer's attempt to suppress radical organizations, it was characterized by exaggerated rhetoric, illegal search and seizures, unwarranted arrests and detentions, and the deportation of several hundred suspected radicals and anarchists. In addition, the growing anti-immigration nativism movement among Americans viewed increasing immigration from Southern Europe and Eastern Europe as a threat to American political and social stability. Bolshevism and the threat of a Communist-inspired revolution in the U.S. became the overriding explanation for challenges to the social order, even such largely unrelated events as incidents of interracial violence. Fear of radicalism was used to explain the suppression of freedom of expression in form of display of certain flags and banners.

Lend-Lease (1941)

Was a program under which the US supplied Free France, the UK, the Republic of China, and later the USSR and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. This included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. It was signed into law in1941 and ended in 1945. In general the aid was free, although some hardware (such as ships) were returned after the war. In return, the U.S. was given leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war. Following the Fall of France in June 1940, the British Commonwealth and Empire were the only forces engaged in war against Germany and Italy, until the Italian invasion of Greece. Britain had been paying for its material in gold under "cash and carry", as required by the US Neutrality Acts of the 1930s, but by 1941 it had liquidated so many assets that it was running short of cash. During this same period, the U.S. government began to mobilize for total war, instituting the first-ever peacetime draft and a fivefold increase in the defense budget (from $2 billion to $10 billion). In the meantime, as the British began running short of money, arms, and other supplies, Churchill pressed Roosevelt for American help. Sympathetic to the British plight but hampered by public opinion and the Neutrality Acts, which forbade arms sales on credit or the loaning of money to belligerent nations, Roosevelt eventually came up with the idea of "Lend-Lease". As one Roosevelt biographer has characterized it: "If there was no practical alternative, there was certainly no moral one either. Britain and the Commonwealth were carrying the battle for all civilization, and the overwhelming majority of Americans, led in the late election by their president, wished to help them." However, a Gallup Poll conducted during the summer of 1941 showed that, in spite of wishing to aid the Allies in the war effort, fully 80% of Americans did not want the US to enter the war.

Pearl Harbor

Was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack led to the US's declaration of war and subsequent entry into World War II. Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the US Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japan's planned military actions in Southeast Asia against the overseas territories of the US, the UK, and the Netherlands. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the US-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong

Kellogg-Briand Pact

Was an absurd and idealistic 1928 international agreement in which the signatory countries promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them." Parties failing to abide by this promise "should be denied of the benefits furnished by this treaty." Sponsored by France and the U.S., the Pact renounces the use of war and calls for the peaceful settlement of disputes. Similar provisions were incorporated into the Charter of the United Nations and other treaties and it became a stepping-stone to a more activist American policy. It is named after its authors, US Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand. Ironically, the pact required an inherent threat of war to enforce the pacifistic sentimentality of its content, a fact which was lost on its more earnest and naive signatories. The Imperial Japanese government signed the thing even as they were cynically conquering their way through Korea and Manchuria.

Zimmermann Telegram

Was an internal diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico in the event of the US' entering WWI against Germany. The German offer included financial support of Mexico and an understanding that Mexico was to reconquer lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The main purpose of the telegram was to make the Mexican government declare war on the US in hopes of tying down American forces and slowing the export of American arms to the Allies. The proposal was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence. Revelation of the contents enraged American public opinion, especially after the German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann publicly admitted the telegram was genuine on 3 March, and helped generate support for the US declaration of war on Germany in April. Mexican President Venustiano Carranza assigned a military commission to assess the feasibility of the Mexican takeover of their former territories contemplated by Germany. The general concluded that it would be neither possible nor even desirable to attempt such an enterprise for the following reasons: • The US was far stronger militarily than Mexico was. No serious scenarios existed under which Mexico could win a war against the US. • Germany's promises of "generous financial support" were very unreliable. The German government had already informed Carranza in June 1916 that they were unable to provide the necessary gold needed to stock a completely independent Mexican national bank. Even if Mexico received financial support, the arms, ammunition, and other needed war supplies would presumably have to be purchased from other South American nations, which would strain relations with them. • Even if by some chance Mexico had the military means to win a conflict against the US and reclaim the territories in question, Mexico would have severe difficulty ruling a large English-speaking civilian population that was better supplied with weapons than most national militaries.

Treaty of Versailles

Was one of the peace treaties at the end of WWI. It ended the war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of WWI were dealt with in separate treaties. Although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918 ("...on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month..."), ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required "Germany [to] accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage" during the war (the other members of the Central Powers signed treaties containing similar articles). This article later became known as the "War Guilt Clause." The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, and pay reparations to the Allied countries. Wilson made several disastrous mistakes in the course of the negotiations. First, he was so focused on delivering the Fourteen Points, that he personally went to Versailles. It often put him on the spot to render snap decisions when pressed for an answer by the other, impatient and short tempered, leaders. Also unfortunately, in his idealistic zeal to dash off right away, Wilson forgot the practical consequences of excluding any Republicans in the negotiating team he took with him to Versailles. Feeling rightfully slighted and then, in turn, insulted when Wilson returned to Washington with the Treaty in hand with facile expectation that the Republicans would pass the document without debate, Congressional Republicans under Henry Cabot Lodge mounted a campaign against the treaty. Wilson further undermined his cause when he sought to bypass what he took to be vindictive obstructionism by going on an exhaustive whistlestop speaking tour around the country in order to appeal, over the heads of Congress, directly to the American people. The peace negotiations, combined with the grueling schedule of stumping for the treaty upon his return, resulted in his collapse of a stroke in Pueblo, CO followed by the ultimate defeat of the treaty itself in Congress.

The Bonus Army

Was the popular name for an assemblage of some 43,000 marchers—17,000 U.S. World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups—who gathered in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1932 to demand cash-payment redemption of their service certificates. Organizers called the demonstrators the "Bonus Expeditionary Force", to echo the name of World War I's American Expeditionary Forces, while the media referred to them as the "Bonus Army" or "Bonus Marchers". Many of the war veterans had been out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression. The World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 had awarded them bonuses in the form of certificates they could not redeem until 1945. Each service certificate, issued to a qualified veteran soldier, bore a face value equal to the soldier's promised payment plus compound interest. The principal demand of the Bonus Army was the immediate cash payment of their certificates. On July 28, the U.S. Attorney General ordered the veterans removed from all government property. Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two veterans were wounded and later died. President Herbert Hoover then ordered the Army to clear the veterans' campsite. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and their shelters and belongings were burned.

Nuremberg Trials

Were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, which were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in The Holocaust and other war crimes. At the meetings in Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945) and Potsdam (1945), the three major wartime powers, the UK, the US, and the Soviet Union, had agreed on the format of punishment for those responsible for war crimes during World War II. France was also awarded a place on the tribunal. The first, and best known of these trials, described as "the greatest trial in history," was the trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT). Held between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the Tribunal was given the task of trying 24 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich. The second set of trials of lesser war criminals at the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT), which included the Doctors' Trial and the Judges' Trial. A second set of tribunals, called the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal was held in 1946. Twenty-eight Japanese military and political leaders were charged with waging aggressive war and with responsibility for conventional war crimes. More than 5,700 lower-ranking personnel were charged with conventional war crimes in separate trials convened by the US, the UK, China and others. The charges covered a wide range of crimes including prisoner abuse, rape, sexual slavery, torture, ill-treatment of labourers, execution without trial and inhumane medical experiments. In the 13 Chinese tribunals, 504 were convicted and 149 executed.

Alphabet Soup Agencies

Were the U.S. federal government agencies created as part of the Roosevelt New Deal. The earliest agencies were created to combat the Great Depression in the United States and were established during Roosevelt's first 100 days in office in 1933. Author William Safire notes that the phrase "gave color to the charge of excessive bureaucracy." Democrat Al Smith, who turned against Roosevelt, said his government was "submerged in a bowl of alphabet soup." In total, at least 100 offices were created during Roosevelt's terms of office as part of the New Deal, and "even the Comptroller-General of the United States, who audits the government's accounts, declared he had never heard of some of them." While previously all monetary appropriations had been separately passed by Act of Congress, as part of their power of the purse; the National Industrial Recovery Act allowed Roosevelt to allocate $3.3 billion without Congress (as much as had been previously spent by government in ten years time), through executive orders and other means. These powers were used to create many of the alphabet agencies. Other laws were passed allowing the new bureaus to pass their own directives within a wide sphere of authority. Even though the National Industrial Recovery Act was found to be unconstitutional, many of the agencies created under it remained. Some alphabet agencies were established by Congress, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority. Others were established through Roosevelt's executive orders, such as the Works Progress Administration and the Office of Censorship, or were part of larger programs such as the many that belonged to the Works Progress Administration. The agencies were sometimes referred to as alphabet soup. Some of the agencies still exist today, while others have merged with other departments and agencies or were abolished, or found unconstitutional.

The Great Migation

What historians later would term the Great Migration occurred first between 1915 and 1930, represented by two great streams of black population. The first stream came from the southeastern states, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia, resettling in the major northeastern U.S. cities - New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Boston. A second migration came from the central Black Belt regions of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, moving northward into new black urban neighborhoods in Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and Cleveland. The racial demographics of urban America were fundamentally altered. By 1930, over 150,000 African Americans were living in New York City. Nearly two million blacks had migrated to urban centers before the Great Depression. The migration slowed during the 1930s, dropping to three-quarters of a million people. Blacks who were part of the Great Migration did so to escape persecution and to search out economic opportunity. The combination led millions to leave the only world they knew for a new and uncertain life. In many ways, the Great Migration consisted of many smaller migrations between local communities. Arguably the most profound effect of WWI on African Americans was the acceleration of the multi-decade mass movement of black, southern rural farm laborers northward and westward in search of higher wages in industrial jobs and better social and political opportunities. This Great Migration led to the rapid growth of black urban communities in cities like New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles. While relatively small groups of southern African Americans had migrated after Reconstruction to border states such as Kansas and out to the west, it was not until the imposition of Jim Crow segregation and disfranchisement in the South that large numbers of blacks left their homes and families to search elsewhere for a better life. Still, in 1910, nearly 90 percent of American blacks lived in the South, four-fifths of them in rural areas. Emigration from the South gained more traction with the advent of several important developments, chiefly economic, beginning in the second decade of the 20th century. In the South the depressed cotton market and a series of natural disasters reduced even the rare independent black landowner to sharecropping or tenant farming, trapping him in a cycle of indebtedness. Military conscription and the slackening of European immigration caused massive labor shortages in the North, just as war production created an insatiable demand for industrial goods. Labor shortages provided blacks with jobs in the steel, shipbuilding, and automotive industries as well as in ammunition and meat packing factories. Many found the promise of economic opportunity irresistible, though this was not the only element pulling blacks northward. In an interview with the New York Times, he encouraged southern black families to migrate west, "los[ing] themselves among the people of the country."

Yalta Conference

Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three. It was preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943, and was succeeded by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. It was the World War II meeting of Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. Roosevelt wanted Soviets to enter the U.S. Pacific War against Japan, as well as Soviet participation in the UN; Churchill pressed for free elections and democratic governments in Eastern and Central Europe (specifically Poland); while Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern and Central Europe. After the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and the end of the war, Germany and Berlin would be split into four occupation zones. Stalin agreed that France would have a fourth occupation zone in Germany, but it would have to be formed out of the American and British zones. Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification. German reparations were partly to be in the form of forced labor.

The Fourteen Points

was a statement of principles for world peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end WWI. The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson. The speech made by Wilson took many domestic progressive ideas and translated them into foreign policy: free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination. It also called for the abolition of secret treaties, a reduction in armaments, an adjustment in colonial claims in the interests of both native peoples and colonists, and freedom of the seas. Wilson also made proposals that would ensure world peace in the future. For example, he proposed the removal of economic barriers between nations, the promise of self-determination for national minorities, and a world organization that would guarantee the "political independence and territorial integrity [of] great and small states alike"—a League of Nations. Though Wilson's idealism pervades the Fourteen Points, he also had more practical objectives in mind. He hoped to keep Russia in the war by convincing the Bolsheviks that they would receive a better peace from the Allies, to bolster Allied morale, and to undermine German war support. The address was well received in the United States and Allied nations, and even by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, as a landmark of enlightenment in international relations. Wilson subsequently used the Fourteen Points as the basis for negotiating the Treaty of Versailles that ended the war.