Chapter 16 Section

2

529

SECTION

Vocabulary Builder

2

2

Step-by-Step Instruction

Objectives

As you teach this section, keep students focused on the following objectives to help them answer the Section Focus Question and master core content.

■

Summarize the domestic and foreign policy issues Europe faced after World War I.

■

Compare the postwar economic situa-tions in Britain, France and the United States.

■

Describe how the Great Depression began and spread and how Britain, France, and the United States tried to address it.

Prepare to Read

Build Background Knowledge

Remind students that after World War I, diplomats wanted to ensure peace. Have students predict the foreign policy issues that Europe might face in the 1920s.

Set a Purpose

■

WITNESS HISTORYWITNESS HISTORY

Read the selection aloud or play the audio.

AUDIO

Witness History Audio CD,

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Ask

How would you paraphrase the song?

(The singer had been promised peace and glory and had helped build a railroad, but now he was poor and depended on charity for food.)

■

Focus

Point out the Section Focus Question and write it on the board. Tell students to refer to this question as they read.

(Answer appears with Section 2 Assessment answers.)

■

Preview

Have students preview the Section Objectives and the list of Terms, People, and Places.

■

Reading Skill

Have students use the

Reading Strategy: Identify Main Ideas

worksheet.

Teaching Resources, Unit 4,

p. 50

■

Have students read this section using the Structured Read Aloud (TE, p. T20). As they read, have students fill in the table identifying postwar issues.

Reading and Note Taking Study Guide,

p. 171

Use the information below and the following resources to teach the high-use words from this section.

Teaching Resources, Unit 4,

p. 49;

Teaching Resources, Skills Handbook,

p. 3High-Use Words Definitions and Sample Sentences

suppress, p. 530

vt.

to put down by force, subdueThe police

suppressed

the protestors after violence erupted.

affluent, p. 532

adj.

rich, wealthyIt was an

affluent

neighborhood with several mansions, and our modest house looked out of place.

L3

L3

22

The Western Democracies StumbleObjectives• Summarize the domestic and foreign policy

issues Europe faced after World War I.• Compare the postwar economic situations in

Britain, France, and the United States.• Describe how the Great Depression began

and spread and how Britain, France, and the United States tried to address it.

Terms, People, and PlacesMaginot LineKellogg-Briand Pactdisarmamentgeneral strikeoverproduction

financeFederal ReserveGreat DepressionFranklin D. RooseveltNew Deal

In 1919, the three Western democracies—Britain, France, and theUnited States—appeared powerful. They had ruled the ParisPeace Conference and boosted hopes for democracy among the newnations of Eastern Europe. Beneath the surface, however, postwarEurope faced grave problems. To make matters worse, many mem-bers of the younger generation who might have become the nextgreat leaders had been killed in the war.

Politics in the Postwar WorldAt first, the most pressing issues were finding jobs for returningveterans and rebuilding war-ravaged lands. Economic problemsfed social unrest and made radical ideas more popular.

Party Struggles in Britain In Britain during the 1920s, theLabour party surpassed the Liberal party in strength. The Labourparty gained support among workers by promoting a gradualmove toward socialism. The Liberal party passed some social legis-lation, but it traditionally represented middle-class business inter-ests. As the Liberal party faltered, the middle class began to backthe Conservative party, joining the upper class, professionals, andfarmers. With this support, the Conservative party held powerduring much of 1920s. After a massive strike of over three millionworkers in 1926, Conservatives passed legislation limiting thepower of workers to strike.

Men eating at a soup kitchen during the Great Depression

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?In the early 1930s, a worldwide economic depression

threw thousands out of work and into lives of poverty. The song below summed up the mood of the time:

“ They used to tell me I was building a dreamWith peace and glory ahead—

Why should I be standing in line,Just waiting for bread?

Once I built a railroad, I made it run,Made it race against time.Once I built a railroad, now it’s done—Brother, can you spare a dime?”

— from the song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?,” lyrics by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg & Jay Gorney. Published by Glocca Morra Music (ASCAP) & Gorney Music (ASCAP). Administered by Next Decade Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Focus Question What political and economic challenges did the leading democracies face in the 1920s and 1930s?

Tin cup

WITNESS HISTORYWITNESS HISTORY AUDIO

Reading Skill: Identify Main Ideas Record main ideas from the first part of this section in a table like the one below.

Country

Postwar Issues

Politics Foreign Policy Economics

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530

The Rise of Totalitarianism

Solutions for All Learners

Teach

Politics in the Postwar World

Instruct

■

Introduce: Vocabulary Builder

Have students read the Vocabulary Builder term and definition. Then have them look at the image on this page. Ask them to predict what group would be

suppressed

by the British.

(the Irish)

■

Teach

Compare unrest in Britain, France, and the United States in the 1920s. Ask

What problems did France and Britain share?

(dis-agreements between parties)

What caused unrest in the United States?

(Fear of radicals led to the Red Scare.)

■

Quick Activity

Have students reread the first sentence after the heading France’s Troubled Peace: “Like Britain, France emerged from World War I both a victor and a loser.” Ask them to explain the meaning of this sentence.

Independent Practice

Viewpoints

To help students better understand the ongoing debate between national security and civil liberties, have them read the selection

The Red Scare

and complete the worksheet.

Teaching Resources, Unit 4,

p. 52

Monitor Progress

As students fill in their tables, circulate to make sure they understand the issues that faced Britain, France, and the United States after the war. For a completed version of the table, see

Note Taking Transparencies,

180A

Answer

Great Britain faced political division and the demands of the Irish for self-government. France was plagued by political divisions and financial scandals. The United States had to deal with the fear of radicalism and growing demands for limits on immigration.

L1

Special Needs L2

Less Proficient Readers L2

English Language Learners

To help students understand the contemporary defini-tions of socialism, liberalism, and conservatism, draw a line on the board to illustrate a spectrum. From left to right, place the words

Socialist, Liberal, Moderate

(in the middle), and

Conservative.

Explain that this spectrum measures each group’s beliefs in the appro-priate amount of government involvement in the

economy. To the right are Conservatives, those who want very little or no government involvement in eco-nomics. To the extreme left are Socialists, who oppose a free market economy and prefer the greatest amount of government involvement in economics. Explain how the labels

left

and

right

are used for these political positions.

L3

Irish Independence at Last Britain still faced the “Irish question.” In1914, Parliament passed a home-rule bill that was shelved when the warbegan. On Easter 1916, a small group of militant Irish nationalistslaunched a revolt against British rule. Although the Easter Rising wasquickly suppressed, it stirred wider support for the Irish cause. WhenParliament again failed to grant home rule in 1919, members of the IrishRepublican Army (IRA) began a guerrilla war against British forces andtheir supporters. In 1922, moderates in Ireland and Britain reached anagreement. Most of Ireland became the self-governing Irish Free State.The largely Protestant northern counties remained under British rule.However, the IRA and others fought for decades against the division.

France’s Troubled Peace Like Britain, France emerged from WorldWar I both a victor and a loser. Political divisions and financial scandalsplagued the government of the Third Republic. Several parties—fromconservatives to communists—competed for power. The parties differedon many issues, including how to get reparations payments from Ger-many. A series of quickly changing coalition governments ruled France.

“The Red Scare” and Isolationism in the United States In con-trast, the United States emerged from World War I in good shape. A lateentrant into the war, it had suffered relatively few casualties and littleloss of property. However, the United States did experience some domes-tic unrest. Fear of radicals and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia set offa “Red Scare” in 1919 and 1920. Police rounded up suspected foreign-born radicals, and a number were expelled from the United States.

The “Red Scare” fed growing demands to limit immigration. Millionsof immigrants from southern and eastern Europe had poured into theUnited States between 1890 and 1914. Some native-born Americanssought to exclude these newcomers, whose cultures differed from those ofearlier settlers from northern Europe. In response, Congress passed lawslimiting immigration from Europe. Earlier laws had already excluded orlimited Chinese and Japanese immigration.

What political issues did each of the three democracies face after World War I?

The Irish ResistMembers of the Irish Republican Army prepare to resist the British occupation of Dublin in 1921 by erecting a barbed wire barricade. The Irish Free State, established in 1922, was a compromise between the opposing sides, but peace was short-lived.

Vocabulary Buildersuppressed—(suh PRESD) vt. put down by force, subdued

Celtic Sea

IrishSea

AtlanticOcean

Irish FreeState

NorthernIreland(U.K.)

N

S

EW

500 100 mi

500 100 km

Conic Projection

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Chapter 16 Section

2

531

History Background

Postwar Foreign Policy

Instruct

■

Introduce

Remind students that dip-lomats wanted to ensure a lasting peace. Have students speculate on poli-cies that European nations might implement to guarantee peace.

■

Teach

Ask students to list the steps the Western powers took to prevent another war. Ask

Why did Britain and France disagree on how to enforce the Versailles Treaty?

(France wanted a strict enforcement to ensure a weak Germany, which wouldn’t pose a threat; Britain wanted a loose enforcement to prevent a weak Ger-many and the threat of a strong France.)

What was the flaw in the disarma-ment agreements?

(They agreed to reduce the size of the navies, but not their armies.)

■

Analyzing the Visuals

Remind stu-dents that the Kellogg-Briand Pact raised hopes for an end to war, but not everyone was optimistic about its suc-cess. Have students work in pairs and summarize the main idea of the car-toon.

(Although the Kellogg-Briand Pact promised to outlaw war, the car-toonist feels that nations should still prepare for war by building up their armed forces.)

Have pairs create a polit-ical cartoon that takes the opposite viewpoint.

Independent Practice

Have students write a paragraph explain-ing whether a treaty such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 could ever bring an end to war. Remind them to explain the provisions of that pact.

Monitor Progress

As students work on their responses, cir-culate to ensure they are expressing their opinions clearly and supporting them with evidence.

Answers

Analyzing Political Cartoons

1.

No, otherwise there would be no need for a fire extinguisher

2.

that a signed agreement needs to be backed by military power

Maginot Line

Most of the Maginot Line, a master-piece of engineering, was built underground with con-necting tunnels that stretched for miles. Main forts, placed strategically to protect river crossings and crossroads, were located about every three to five miles. These were self-contained underground struc-tures more than 20 feet beneath the surface. Large enough to accommodate about 1,200 men, the forts

contained barracks, kitchens, infirmaries, storage areas, telephone systems, electrical generation sys-tems, and railways to move supplies. All that could be seen above ground were the barrels of the huge guns and gun placements. In the end, the line failed to pre-vent a German invasion. In 1940 German troops sim-ply bypassed the Maginot Line and marched into France through the Ardennes forest.

L3

C

A

B

Postwar Foreign PolicyIn addition to problems at home, the three democracies faced a difficultinternational situation. The peace settlements caused friction, especiallyin Germany and among some ethnic groups in Eastern Europe.

Arguing Allies France’s chief concern after the war was securing itsborders against Germany. The French remembered the German inva-sions of 1870 and 1914. To prevent a third invasion, France built massivefortifications called the Maginot Line (ma zhee NOH) along its borderwith Germany. However, the line would not be enough to stop anotherGerman invasion in 1940.

In its quest for security, France also strengthened its military andsought alliances with other countries, including the Soviet Union. Itinsisted on strict enforcement of the Versailles treaty and complete pay-ment of reparations. France’s goal was to keep the German economy weak.

Britain disagreed with this aim. Almost from the signing of the Treatyof Versailles, British leaders wanted to relax the treaty’s harsh treat-ment of Germany. They feared that if Germany became too weak, theSoviet Union and France would become too powerful.

The Search for Peace Despite disagreements, many people workedfor peace in the 1920s. Hopes soared in 1925 when representatives fromseven European nations signed a series of treaties at Locarno, Switzer-land. These treaties settled Germany’s disputed borders with France,Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The Locarno treaties became thesymbol of a new era of peace.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact, which was sponsored by the UnitedStates in 1928, echoed the hopeful “spirit of Locarno.” Almost every inde-pendent nation signed this agreement, promising to “renounce war as aninstrument of national policy.” In this optimistic spirit, the great powerspursued disarmament, the reduction of armed forces and weapons. TheUnited States, Britain, France, Japan, and other nations signed treatiesto reduce the size of their navies. However, they failed to agree on limit-ing the size of their armies.

From its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland,the League of Nations encouraged cooperation andtried to get members to make a commitment to stopaggression. In 1926, after signing the Locarnoagreements, Germany joined the League. Later, theSoviet Union was also admitted.

The League’s Weakness The peace was fragile.Although the Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawed war, itprovided no way of enforcing the ban. The League ofNations, too, was powerless to stop aggression. In1931, the League vigorously condemned Japan’sinvasion of Manchuria, but did not take militaryaction to stop it. Ambitious dictators in Europenoted the League’s weakness and began to pursueaggressive foreign policies.

How did the Treaty of Versailles affect the relationship between France and Britain?

A

B

C

Analyzing Political Cartoons

An End to War? The Kellogg-Briand Pact raised hopes for an end to war. But not everyone was so optimistic, as this 1929 American cartoon shows.

Kellogg-Briand Pact framed as a fire insurance policy

Adequate navy as a fire extin-guisher

Uncle Sam looking at both

1. Do you think that the cartoonist feelsthat a fire insurance policy is enoughto prevent a fire?

2. What point do you think the cartoon-ist is making about the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

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The Rise of Totalitarianism

Solutions for All Learners

Postwar Economics

Instruct

■

Introduce: Vocabulary Builder

Have students read the Vocabulary Builder term and definition. Based on their previous reading, have them pre-dict which postwar nation(s) would be the most

affluent

and which would face economic problems.

■

Teach

On the board, draw a three-column chart with the title “Postwar Economics.” Label the columns

Britain, France,

and

United States.

Ask stu-dents to supply the information about the economic condition of each nation after World War I, and write their answers on the board.

(Britain: lost overseas trade, was deep in debt, had outdated factories, and suffered severe unemployment, worker unrest and strikes. France: helped by German repa-rations and territories gained from Ger-many, but suffered economic swings. U.S.: became world’s leading economic power, experienced boom years, produced many consumer goods, and contributed loans and investments to aid European recovery.)

Independent Practice

Have students reread the paragraph under The United States Booms. In pairs, have them create a list of the pros and cons of economic interdependence. Using the Idea Wave strategy (TE, p. T22), ask groups to share their lists with the class.

Monitor Progress

To review the section so far, have stu-dents summarize the economic situation of each Western power.

Answer

The cycle of war debt and reparations made Europe’s economic recovery shaky, while the United States boomed.

L3

INFOGRAPHIC

A man tries to find work (above). The cycle of war payments helped spread the Great Depression to Europe.

�

Unemployment led people to visit soup kitchens like the one below in Berlin. In New York and other cities, bread lines spanned multiple cityblocks (below right), and many people becamehomeless (far right).

The greatest worldwide depression in history began in the United States in 1929, and soon spread to touch most parts of the world. In the United States alone, millions lost their jobs and endured great hardship. Hungry people visited soup kitchens or waited in long bread lines. Thousands of people left their homes to seek work in cities. Some were forced to live in makeshift shantytowns or on the streets when they could no longer afford to pay for housing. The United States would not recover from this economic downturn until the start of World War II.

Overall U.S. productionplummets.

U.S. investors have little or no money to invest.

U.S. investmentsin Germany

decline.

German war payments toAllies fall off.

Europeans cannotafford American

goods.

Allies cannotpay debts to

United States.

World PaymentsPostwar EconomicsThe war affected economies all over the world, hurting some andhelping others. Britain and France both owed huge war debts to the

United States. Both relied on reparation payments from Germany topay back their loans. Meanwhile, the crushing reparations and other

conditions hurt Germany’s economy.

Britain and France Recover Britain faced serious economic problemsin the 1920s. It was deeply in debt, and its factories were out of date.Unemployment was severe. Wages remained low, leading to workerunrest and frequent strikes. In 1926, a general strike, or strike byworkers in many different industries at the same time, lasted nine daysand involved some three million workers.

In comparison, the French economy recovered fairly rapidly. Financialreparations and territories gained from Germany helped. Still, economicswings did occur, adding to an unstable political scene.

Despite these problems, Europe made a shaky recovery during the1920s. Economies returned to peacetime manufacturing and trade. Vet-erans gradually found jobs, although unemployment never ceased to be aproblem. Middle-class families enjoyed a rising standard of living.

The United States Booms In contrast, the United States emergedfrom the war as the world’s leading economic power. In the affluent1920s, middle-class Americans enjoyed the benefits of capitalism. Ameri-can loans and investments backed the recovery in Europe. As long as theAmerican economy prospered, the global economy remained stable.

How did the war and its peace treaties affect the international economy?

Vocabulary Builderaffluent—(AF loo unt) adj. rich, wealthy

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L4

Advanced Readers L4

Gifted and Talented

Draw this “vicious cycle” graphic organizer on the board for students to analyze: People are not buying goods.

→

There is too much supply.

→

Companies lay off workers to save money.

→

Fewer people have extra money.

→

People are not buying goods. Ask stu-dents to work in groups and answer the following

questions: (1) Where should a government intervene if it were to try to interrupt this cycle? For instance, should a government focus on buying up a company’s excess supply? Should it give its citizens money to buy goods? (2) How did the United States, France, and Britain address this issue during the 1930s?

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Chapter 16 Section

2

533

Link to Economics

The Great Depression

Instruct

■

Introduce: Key Terms

Have students find the key term

Great Depression

(in blue) in the text and explain its meaning. Have students preview the Infographic on this page. Then ask

Based on the definition and clues in the Infographic, what do you think are the characteristics of a depression?

(unemployment, a major slump in business activity, and hard times)

■

Teach

Discuss how the economic crisis developed in the United States. Ask

What are three causes of the Great Depression?

(less demand for raw materials, overproduction of manufac-tured goods, the crash of the stock mar-ket)

How did the beginning of the depression in the United States affect world markets?

(The U.S. economy was part of an international network of trade and finance; as its economy faltered, the economies that relied on it faltered, too.)

■

Quick Activity

Show students

The Great Depression and American Farm-ers

from the

Witness History Discov-ery School

™

video program. Ask them

Why were American farmers hit hard by the depression?

(They had not shared equally in the wealth gener-ated by the boom in the 1920s.)

Independent Practice

Have students begin to fill in the chart identifying the causes and effects of the Great Depression.

Reading and Note Taking Study Guide,

p. 171

Monitor Progress

As students fill in their charts, circulate to make sure they understand the down-ward spiral set in motion by the American economic crisis in the 1920s. For a com-pleted version of the chart, see

Note Taking Transparencies,

180B

Answers

Thinking Critically

1.

Because European countries were dependent on American loans and investment, they were hit hard when the American economy failed.

2.

Germany; the United States

An Interesting Theory

During the Great Depres-sion, one in four Americans was jobless. From 1928 to 1930, the unemployment rate in Great Britain dou-bled. Many people began to doubt that the economy could correct itself. During these uncertain times, British economist John Maynard Keynes put out a revolutionary economic theory. In his 1936 work,

The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

,

he showed how government actions might push the economy out of its depressed state. With this, he pro-vided an economic basis for the creation of a govern-ment jobs program to reduce high unemployment. Many governments, looking to justify their decisions to increase spending, readily agreed with Keynes’s conclusions. Keynes’s work would influence economic policy for much of the twentieth century.

L3

Unemployment, 1928–1938

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

01928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938

YearUnited States

Perc

enta

ge o

f wor

kfor

ce

GermanyGreat BritainSOURCES: European Historical Statistics and Historical Statisticsof the United States

The Great DepressionThis prosperity did not last. At the end of the 1920s, an economic crisisbegan in the United States and spread to the rest of the world, leavingalmost no corner untouched.

Falling Demand and Overproduction The wealth created duringthe 1920s in the United States was not shared evenly. Farmers andunskilled workers were on the losing end. Though demand for raw mate-rials and agricultural products had skyrocketed during the war, demanddwindled and prices fell after the war. Farmers, miners and other suppli-ers of raw materials suffered. Because they earned less, they bought less.At the same time, better technology allowed factories to make more prod-ucts faster. This led to overproduction, a condition in which the pro-duction of goods exceeds the demand for them. As demand slowed,factories cut back on production and workers lost their jobs.

Crash and Collapse Meanwhile, a crisis in finance—the manage-ment of money matters, including the circulation of money, loans, invest-ments, and banking—was brewing. Few saw the danger. Prices on theNew York Stock Exchange were at an all-time high. Eager investorsacquired stocks through risky methods. To slow the run on the stock mar-ket, the Federal Reserve, the central banking system of the UnitedStates, which regulates banks, raised interest rates in 1928 and again1929. It didn’t work. Instead, the higher interest rates made people ner-vous about borrowing money and investing, thereby hurting demand.

In the autumn of 1929, jitters about the economy caused many peopleto sell their stocks at once. Financial panic set in. Stock prices crashed,wiping out the fortunes of many investors. The Great Depression, apainful time of global economic collapse, had begun quietly in the

Thinking Critically1. Synthesize Information How did

world payments help cause the Great Depression to spread from the United States to Europe?

2. Analyze Visuals Based on the line graph, which country had the highest percentage of unemployed people in 1932? In 1938?

The Great Depression

Causes Effects Reactions•••

•••

•••

Reading Skill: Identify Main Ideas To help you to remember what you’ve read, use a chart like the one below to record the main ideas of the next two subsections.

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The Rise of Totalitarianism

Link to Economics

Solutions for All Learners

The Democracies React to the Depression

Instruct

■

Introduce: Key Terms

Have students find the key term

New Deal

(in blue) in the text and explain its meaning. Ask students to predict the ways in which the New Deal would affect the depression.

■

Teach

Discuss the programs the three Western powers each adopted in an effort to lift the Depression. Ask

Was the New Deal successful?

(Partially; though it was not able to end the Great Depression, it did ease its effects on mil-lions of Americans.)

Ask students to propose other ways nations might have dealt with the problem.

■

Quick Activity

Display

Color Trans-parency 169: WPA Mural.

Use the lesson suggested in the transparency book to guide a discussion on how the New Deal supported artists and pro-vided work, as can be seen in this mural funded by the New Deal.

Color Transparencies,

169

Independent Practice

Tell students that FDR’s New Deal pro-grams expanded the government’s role in the daily lives of Americans. Many Ameri-cans disliked this trend. In groups, have students stage a debate on this question, with one side defending the New Deal and the other criticizing it.

Monitor Progress

■

Check Reading and Note Taking Study Guide entries for student understanding.

■

Point out the diagram on the next page. To review this section so far, ask stu-dents to explain how the New Deal illustrates John Maynard Keynes’s ideas on economic recovery.

Answers

The policies made people less likely to invest, which further hurt demand and eventually contributed to the closure of many banks and businesses.

Caption

Drought and erosion allowed wind-storms to pick up and carry topsoil away across the plains.

L4

Gifted and Talented

Historians still debate whether Roosevelt’s New Deal helped the U.S. economy recover from the Great Depression, and whether the New Deal was worth the increase in government spending. To examine these questions, have student groups conduct a cost-benefit analysis of government spending during this period. Each group should determine whether U.S. govern-ment spending had benefits equal to or greater than

the cost. First have groups gather data on government spending and gross domestic product from 1929 to 1940. Then ask them to consider: Did government spending raise gross domestic product during this period? What other factors might account for any increase in gross domestic product? Was the increase in government spending justified? For background and historical sources, go to

Web Code nbe-2802.

L3

summer of 1929 with decreasing production. The October stock marketcrash aggravated the economic decline.

In 1931, the Federal Reserve again increased the interest rate, withan even more disastrous effect. As people bought and invested less, busi-nesses closed and banks failed, throwing millions out of work. The cyclespiraled steadily downward. The jobless could not afford to buy goods, somore factories had to close, which in turn increased unemployment. Peo-ple slept on park benches and lined up to eat in soup kitchens.

The Depression Spreads The economic problems quickly spreadaround the world. American banks stopped making loans abroad anddemanded repayment of foreign loans. Without support from the UnitedStates, Germany suffered. It could not make its reparations payments.France and Britain were not able to make their loan payments.

Desperate governments tried to protect their economies from foreigncompetition. The United States imposed the highest tariffs in its history.The policy backfired when other nations retaliated by raising their tar-iffs. In 1932 and 1933, global world trade sank to its 1900 level. As youhave read, the Great Depression spread misery from the industrial worldto Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

How did the Federal Reserve’s policies affect the Great Depression?

The Democracies React to the DepressionThe governments of Britain, France, and the United States, like othersaround the world, tried to find ways to lift the Depression. None of theirmethods provided a quick fix, but they did alleviate some of the suffering.

Britain and France Search for Solutions In response to the Depres-sion, Britain set up a coalition government made up of leaders from allthree of its major political parties. The government provided some unem-ployment benefits but failed to take decisive action to improve the econ-omy. By 1931, one in every four workers was unemployed.

The Great Depression took longer to hurt France than some othercountries. However, by the mid-1930s, France was feeling the pinch ofdecreased production and unemployment. In response, several leftistparties united behind the socialist leader Leon Blum. His Popular Frontgovernment tried to solve labor problems and passed some social legisla-tion. But it could not satisfy more radical leftists. Strikes soon broughtdown Blum’s government. Democracy survived, but the country lackedstrong leadership able to respond to the clamor for change.

WITNESS HISTORY VIDEOWITNESS HISTORY VIDEO

Watch The Great Depression and American Farmers on the Witness History Discovery SchoolTM video program to learn more about the impact of the Great Depression on rural Americans.

The Dust BowlIn Dorothea Lange’s famous 1936 photo Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, a mother looks into the future with despair. She migrated to escape scenes like the one below, where huge dust storms buried farm equipment in Dallas, Texas. How did geography help aggravate the depression in the United States?

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Chapter 16 Section

2

535

Assess and Reteach

Assess Progress

■

Have students complete the Section Assessment.

■

Administer the Section Quiz.

Teaching Resources, Unit 4,

p. 45

■

To further assess student under-standing, use

Progress Monitoring Transparencies,

119

Reteach

If students need more instruction, have them read the section summary.

Reading and Note Taking Study Guide,

p. 172

Adapted Reading and Note Taking Study Guide,

p. 172

Spanish Reading and Note Taking Study Guide,

p. 172

Extend

Tell students that the Great Depression started in the United States and Europe, but its effects spread all over the world. Ask them to look into how the Depression affected one of the following regions: Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa south of the Sahara.

Answers

Diagram Skills

to provide additional spending during a depression

At first, by providing only minimal assistance but under Roosevelt’s New Deal, jobs were cre-ated, farmers received aid, Social Security was introduced, and the stock market regulated.

Section 2 Assessment

1.

Sentences should reflect an understanding of each term, person, or place listed at the beginning of the section.

2.

After the war, democracies struggled to rebuild war-ravaged land. In later years, they faced political and social unrest and the spread of an economic crisis.

3.

Britain and France, with American help, defeated Germany. Both, however, faced

serious political divisions and economic fragility.

4.

They signed several treaties and relied on the League of Nations to halt aggression; the pacts and the League did not have the power to enforce their goals.

5.

(a) Falling demand led to overproduction. (b) When the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates, people bought less and invested less. (c) The financial crisis of 1929 aggravated the downward cycle.

6.

Under the New Deal, the federal govern-ment became more directly involved in the lives of Americans than ever before.

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Writing About History

The Venn diagram should reflect facts from the section.

For additional assessment, have students access

Progress Monitoring

Online

at

Web Code nba-2821.

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Roosevelt Offers the United States a New Deal Meanwhile, inthe United States, President Herbert Hoover firmly believed that thegovernment should not intervene in private business matters. Even so,he did try a variety of limited measures to solve the crisis. Nothingseemed to work. In 1932, Americans elected a new President, FranklinD. Roosevelt. “FDR” argued that the government had to take an activerole in combating the Great Depression. He introduced the New Deal, amassive package of economic and social programs.

Under the New Deal, the federal government became more directlyinvolved in people’s everyday lives than ever before. New laws regulatedthe stock market and protected bank deposits. Government programscreated jobs and gave aid to farmers. A new Social Security system pro-vided pensions for the elderly and other benefits.

As the New Deal programs were being put into effect, a natural disas-ter in 1934 hit several central states. After years of drought and over-farming, huge winds blew across the plains. The winds picked up andcarried away the topsoil exposed by erosion, creating the Dust Bowl. Thestorms destroyed crops, land, and equipment. Thousands of farmers losttheir land. Many migrated to the cities of the West Coast in search ofwork and a new life.

The New Deal failed to end the Great Depression, although it did easethe suffering for many. Still, some critics fiercely condemned FDR’sexpansion of the role of government. The debate about the size and roleof the federal government continues to this day.

Loss of Faith in Democracy As the Depression wore on, many peoplelost faith in the ability of democratic governments to solve the problems ofthe modern world. Postwar disillusionment, soothed by the few goodyears of the 1920s, turned into despair in Europe. Misery and hopeless-ness created fertile ground for extremists who promised radical solutions.

How did the government of the United States react to the Depression?

Progress Monitoring OnlineFor: Self-quiz with vocabulary practiceWeb Code: nba-2821

Terms, People, and Places

1. For each term, person, or place listed at the beginning of the section, write a sentence explaining its significance.

2. Reading Skill: Identify Main Ideas Use your completed table and chart to answer the Focus Question: What political and economic challenges did the leading democracies face in the 1920s and 1930s?

Comprehension and Critical Thinking

3. Synthesize Information How did Brit-ain and France emerge from World War I as both victors and losers?

4. Predict Consequences What steps did the major powers take to protect the peace? Why did these moves have limited effects?

5. Recognize Cause and Effect Explain how each of the following contributed to the outbreak or spread of the Great Depression: (a) falling demand, (b) Federal Reserve Board, and (c) financial crisis.

6. Identify Central Issues How did the Great Depression affect political developments in the United States?

● Writing About History

Quick Write: Make a Venn Diagram Auseful way to gather details for a compare-and-contrast essay is to use a Venn dia-gram. Place similarities between two ideas in the overlapping part of the circles; place differences in the parts that don’t overlap. Create a Venn diagram for an essay on the following thesis statement: The United States was in better shape than Britain and France after World War I.

Diagram Skills What role did Keynes envision for government in the economy?

Economic Theories andthe Great Depression

According to classical economists, free market economies naturally regulate their own highs and lows. The government should interfere as little as possible. The economist John Maynard Keynes argued that during a depression, the government should step in and spend more to bring the economy back up to its full productive capacity.

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