CHC2D – Roaring Twenties Notes

CHC2D Grade 10 Academic History – Roaring Twenties Notes Roaring Twenties & Dirty Thirties Key Terms Inflation: Rising cost of living and decreasing value of money. Veteran Expectations: jobs, pensions, and medical care. Spanish Flu/ Influenza: Colony: Post-war epidemic known as ‘Spanish Influenza’ or ‘flu’. Origin of flu is debated but believed it spread in the trenches and filthy conditions of the First World War. Theory: soldiers brought the flu home, spread it through parades and in the workplace, and it intensified due to a shortage of healthcare. Significance 50 million deaths, 50 thousand Canadian deaths Pandemic: Global health scare. Flu became a “global pandemic” An epidemic that affects many people in many countries. Suffrage: The right to vote. Early 1900s, Nellie McClung, Emily Murphy and others fought for women’s right to vote. Demand: not only suffrage, but the right to run for public office. The senate serves as lawyers and judges practice medicine etc. 1918: Women suffrage extends to most women. 1919: Women have the right to run for parliament. 1921: Agnes Macphail, first female in parliament. Significance of Suffrage: women receive the right to vote but are still not considered equal. Alberta Five: 1927; Nellie McClung and four others challenge the definition of a ‘person’ in BNA including women. They appeal to the Privy Council of England, which is the highest court of appeals in England, and win after the Supreme Court of Canada rejects their case. A huge win for women! Emily Murphy: First to be appointed as a judge & the most important figure in the person's case. Roaring Twenties & Dirty Thirties Prohibition: Laws making it illegal to create and sell intoxicating liquor. Early 20th Century: alcohol blamed for many social problems including crime, public drunkenness, family violence and poverty. The W.C.T.U. and other temperance and other movements advocated for the banning of alcoholic consumption. Belief: Stop spending money on alcohol and our lives and society will improve. Canada; prohibition lasts from 1918-1919. United States; prohibition lasted throughout the 1920’s and the early 1930’s. Was prohibition successful? illegal trade in alcohol developed. “Bootlegging” / “Rum-Running”: People made alcohol illegally and sold it on black market. The Canadian government lost revenues that typically generated taxes. Reaction: By 1920’s prohibition laws were removed in favor of government-run liquor sales (ie. LCBO). Belief: government regulation = more profits. Canadian liquor companies also made huge profits by smuggling to the USA. Urbanization: When social trends reveal people moving in large numbers from rural areas to live in towns and cities. Pre-WWI: Over 50% of Canadians live on farm/rural areas. v.s Post-WWI: Majority of Canadians live in towns and cities. Why move? Industries and factories grow in the cities and need a large skilled labor force. Towns and cities therefore offer jobs and a new prosperous way of living. Consumerism: Culture focused on the advertising, selling and buying of consumer goods. 1920s economic boom = ability to purchase more than just the necessities of food, clothing and shelter. Mass-Advertising campaigns: Companies use catalogs, magazines and publications to showcase their products. Women were often targeted. Examples: radios, toasters, irons, sewing machines, and fashionable clothing. Roaring Twenties & Dirty Thirties Reserves: Land set aside by the Canadian government for the exclusive use of the aboriginal community. Mentality of the Federal Government: First Nations will receive reserves and benefits in exchange for the surrendering of their land. Recovered land will then be given to immigrants. Indian Act: 1. Determined who was a status Indian and who would therefore receive benefits (health care, education, financial assistance). 2. Federal government had complete control over the reserves. First Nations therefore lost the right to govern themselves/vote. 3. First Nations were required to ask permission to leave the reserve 4. Prohibited the consumption of alcohol on the reserve. Assimilation: Gradually assimilate First Nations people into Canadian society Hardships on Reserves: 1. 2. 3. 4. Small Reserves vs. large communities. Federal budget reduces service to reserves. Inability to practice aboriginal traditions. Few jobs available, high unemployment, leads to over reliance on government assistants. Therefore: creates a relationship of dependance. First Nations Expectations Federal Government Reality -the treaty is a binding contract -the treaty is a promise Roaring Twenties & Dirty Thirties Residential Schools: A systematic method of which aboriginal children could be ‘assimilated’ and ‘civilized’ in a way that would allow them to fit into Canadian society. Structure of Residential Schools: Target: Children 7-15 years of age. Adapt English- style dress. English is the language of instruction. Students aren’t allowed to speak their first language. Christian religion values emphasized over aboriginal spirituality. Children are often required to do manual labor. Significance: 1. Loss of aboriginal culture, traditions and language. 2. Evidence of abuse. 3. Enfranchised: ‘converted’ Indians could receive citizenship, including the right to vote, if they relinquished their Indian status. Duncan Scott: Head of the department of Indian Affairs: Advocated for Indian assimilation through education. Push Factors: Conditions that persuade people to leave their homeland. Pull Factors: Opportunities for a better life which draw people to the new country. Canada’s pull factors: The Federal government promised: 1. Opportunity for a prosperous life. 2. Loans for farmlands 3. (Relative) religious and political freedom. The Charleston: A jazz dance. The Black Bottom: A jazz dance. Flappers: Name for women whose fashion behavior challenged traditional social norms and gender expectations. Went to bars. Revealed skin. Danced alone. Smoked alone. Roaring Twenties & Dirty Thirties Drugstore Cowboys: Name for men whose fashion and behavior challenged traditional social norms. Greased and slicked hair. Gambling. Bold pattern suits. Emily Carr: A famous Canadian artist who focused on the West coast and indigenous culture. Group Seven: Seven Canadian painters who worked together and painted landscapes. Their art was an expression of their feelings about nature. Style: was opposite to realism, bold, striking, colors, and brush strokes. Fad: Any form of popular behavior or trend that is extremely popular for a short period of time. Stock Market: Where businesses and companies finance themselves (grow) by selling shares of company stock. The idea: you pay to own a piece (a share) of a company. Share prices and determined by supply/demand. Popular stock = more valuable. “Wanting to sell the stock” = less valuable (low demand) Laissez-Faire Capitalism: 1. An economic theory that the government should not interfere with the economy. 2. Belief: with little or no intervention, the economy will naturally regulate itself and grow. 3. AKA: “free enterprise” Example #1: No government laws protecting worker’s wages and their working conditions. Example #2: No regulations or monitoring of the stock market. People invested what they wanted, including money they did not have. Black Tuesday: October 29, 1929 Stock market crashes in the United States with the value of stocks plummeting. Investors panic and try to sell their shares. One day: millions of dollars lost, stock drops by as much as 50% while some become completely worthless. Impact of the crash spread to other countries, such as Canada, France, and Germany. Roaring Twenties & Dirty Thirties Tariffs: Tax imposed on by one country on goods coming from another country, to protect industries from foreign competition. End of 1920s: many countries impose tariffs on imported goods. Canada’s economy relied on exporting raw materials. Therefore the shrinking global market made it difficult for Canada to to sell it’s resources. The United States was Canada’s most important trading partner. When the Depression devastated the American economy, Canada also suffered. Rationing: Preserving, dividing, eating in small amounts. R.B Bennett: Political party leader of Conservative, Bennett won and served from 1930-1935. Why did Bennet win? WLMK: declared that he would not provide the provincial government with financial assistance. Relief Camps: Government sponsored public work project in order to provide work for the unemployed. Purpose: the federal government wanted to remove the large numbers of young unemployed men, who flooded ban cities looking for work. Relief Camps were therefore established in secluded parts of the country. Structure: young men both lived and worked in the relief camps, completing public work projects (ex. buildings, roads). Reality: low wages, working long hours, poor living conditions (food staples, overcrowded rooms), “living in a prison”, workers began protesting against the relief camps. Others looked for parties to join. New Deal: Bennett copies FDR’s idea and promises 8 hour work days, minimum wage and unemployment insurance. New deal fails and Bennett loses the election. WLMK: William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s 11th, 13th and 15th Prime Minister from 1921-1926, 1926-1930, and 1935-1948. Trekkers: Young men who climbed onto railroads and traveled across Canada looking for work. These men usually were usually single, unskilled workers who were often the first to lose their jobs. “Riding the rails”: theme of the 1930s. Roaring Twenties & Dirty Thirties On-to-Ottawa Trek & Regina Riot:1935: Starting in B.C.,thousands of trekkers hop onto railcars with the plan of heading across the country to Ottawa to meet with Bennett and demand: 1. Higher wages. 2. Better working conditions. People supported the young men in every town that stopped to refuel. Food and clothes were often donated. June 14th 1935: 2000 Trekkers reach Regina, Saskatchewan. Bennet agrees to meet a small group of representatives in Ottawa while the rest of the trekkers stay behind in Regina. Meeting solves nothing. Bennett declares: 1. Relief camps are good for workers and the country. 2. Trekkers are communist agitators sparking revolution. July 1st 1935 Representatives return to Regina. Mass demonstrations by Trekkers. RCMP and local police attempt to arrest trekkers. Riots, violences, bloodshed Result: 1. One police officer dead and hundreds wounded. 2. Trekkers return to their homes having gained nothing. CCF: Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a political party that wanted to dismantle the free enterprise economic system. Roaring Twenties & Dirty Thirties Social Credit Party & Bible Bill Aberhart: Had roots in Western Canada, based on economic theory that proposed the government pay a social dividend (a payment to all citizens based on the economic health and wealth of the country). Consumers would spend the money to buy more goods, thus increasing demand and production, creating more jobs. However, most consumers ended up saving the money. During the depression, the idea of social dividend made sense to many people, especially Albertan William Aberhart (Bible Bill). Aberhart hosted a popular radio show, and preached the idea of social credit—he called upon the Alberta government to give every adult $25/month. Once in power, Aberhart had to face political reality: the government simply didn’t have the money to pay $25/month to each citizen. Aberhart wanted to print more money, but courts ruled that monetary policy was federal responsibility.