World War One And Economic Boom In 1920s

Introduction

USA was optimistic in 1900. For most of the American nation, their life was remarkably better than USA had been. The prosperity of USA leads to a new materialism, leisure time, and vacations for the middle class people. America was now the world's most prospered country. It had easy access to electricity, automobiles, and indoor water, and most people felt that such conveniences were just a matter of time.

Trade and Export between America and Europe

How did America and Europe trading during World War 1?

As long as USA’s trade was allowed to continue, on August 4th, 1914, Wilson officially announced that America would be neutral in World War One. That neutrality leads to the idea of ‘fairness’. Trade with both sides was allowed and merchant ships crossed the Atlantic to trade.

When the First World War erupted in July 1914, its consequence on the American economy was at first uncertain. As the European major powers began to fight each other, their international trade was suspended, which meant that Europe could no longer supply textiles, machinery and chemicals to the rest of the world. It was feared that American investment would be adversely affected. In reality, America did experience severe shortage of machines, therefore it needed American trade. However very soon, World War One brought a huge success to the American economy because of the sudden increase in global demand for American products from Europe and other overseas countries. America's manufactured products were still of lower quality but it could substitute for the European goods which were now unavailable. Soon the quality got better and better every year

What were the effects of the war? (Graphs of GNP during World war 1 and after World war 1)



American economy during the war increased. The reason why only america increase during the war increase is that the war during the war helped america to trade with Europe. For example, America produced many weapons, and food when Europe wasn’t able to produce foods and weapons.

What agricultural crops were they trading?

American agriculture boomed in World War I when the United States in essence fed the Allied nations as well as its own wartime armed forces. In 1914–18, American wheat production rose to an average of about 870 million bushels and cotton exports also increased, although corn production remained relatively stable. Farmers and much farm labor received draft deferments; encouraged by soaring commodity prices, they increased their production through purchase of gasoline‐powered machinery and the cultivation of additional land. In 1918, grain production reached into the most arid section of the Great Plains. The wholesale price index of farm products more than doubled, from 100 to 208 between 1914 and 1918. When the wartime foreign and military demands declined after the war, export markets collapsed, and American agriculture, already heavily in debt from the wartime expansion, plunged into a severe economic depression in 1921, which lasted for more than a decade.

Trade with overseas (Asia and Africa mostly)

Why did Europe stopped selling their goods to overseas country?

Europe stopped selling as Europe needed more supply to own country because of the war. During the war, there was a lot of food shortage which caused a lot of famine in poverty. This leads to more massive demands of foods. In addition, they also needed such resources, e.g lead, coal, wood, and etc for weapons. Also for the development of weapons they couldn’t share their resources to overseas country. These are the reasons why they weren’t able to trade with their oversea alliances. Therefore, instead of Europe, America which had a lot of resources, and food production replaced Europe so that they can trade with overseas country.

What were they trading? How did the export increase the economy in America?

During the war nearly all the major European economies declined; Britain was the exception. The main reason was that the strains of mobilisation began to pull them apart, with the industrialised cities going in one direction and the countryside going in the other way. In that context, we find that Russia’s economic performance was better than has been thought. Our study shows that until the year of the 1917, Revolution Russia’s economy was declining, but by no more than any other continental power. While wartime economic trends shed some light on the causes of the Russian Revolution, they certainly do not support an economically deterministic story; if anything, our account leaves more room for political agency than previous studies

How did economy grow during the war and after the war? (Graphs, or statistics)

Technological Advance

How did these new technology affect the american economy?

Recent advances included phonographs, light bulbs, typewriters, machine guns, skyscrapers, telegraphs, diesel fuel, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, microphones, and aspirin. In 1900, a train could bring you the same distance in six days that a covered wagon brought you in six months. Cross-continental travel became easy for almost anyone.

As Henry Ford produced the first Model T, automobiles were looked upon generally with both interest and disdain. Though autos traveled twice as fast as horses, only 8,000 cars and about 10 miles of paved roads existed in 1900 America. Adding to the technology, that year's Paris Exposition showed off exciting new inventions like moving sidewalks, wireless telegraphy, powerful telescopes, and the first escalator. To cap it all off, 1900 ended with the first overseas telephone call.

Immigration

How many immigrants did they go to America? (Graphs)



How did they help economic boom

America is a nation of immigrants. Our American journey and our success would simply not be possible without the generations of immigrants who have come to our shores from every corner of the globe. It is helpful to take a moment to reflect on the important contributions by the generations of immigrants who have helped us build our economy, and made America the economic engine of the world. 

Immigrants start businesses. According to the Small Business Administration, immigrants are 30 percent more likely

...