THE NAME WAS GIVEN FOR THE DYNAMIC GROWTH OF THE

AMERICAN ECONOMY IN THE DECADE AFTER

THE FIRST WORLD WAR.

BOOM

1920sAmerican business grew more

quickly than ever before.

They found a way of making goods faster than ever before, as production went up prices came down so ordinary people bought more hosehold than ever before.

Millions of cars and fridges were sold.

Many families bought houses in the suburbs, and with money to spare they spend more on leisure.

Company profits were growing a lot.

The goverment built more roads than ever before and the majority of homes were supplied with electricity and phone lines.

To symbolise this huge changes some cities built skyscrapers.

INDUSTRIAL STRENTH

The USA was vast country rich in natural resources and with a growing population of 123 million people in 1923.

These dwellers became an important market for the industries.

Most US companies had no need to export outside USA because most of US companies had access to the raw materials they needed in the USA.

FIRST WORLD WAR

When this war started the USA lent money to Allies, sold arms and munitions to Britain and France and sold massive amounts of foodstuffs as well.

Aircrafts were improved during the First world war, in 1918 there were virtually no civilian airlines. By 1930 the new aircraft companies flew 162000 flights a year.

REPUBLICAN POLICIES

This was the third factor of the “boom”.

From 1920 to 1932 all the US presidents were Republican.

Here are some of their beliefs:

BELIEFS

Laissez-faire

They belived that goverment should interfere as little as possible in the everiday lives of peolpe.

Protective tariffs

This tariffs protected businesses against foreign competition and allowed American companies to grow even more reapidly.

Low taxation

The republicans kept taxations as low as possible.

Powerful trust

Allowed the trusts to do what they wanted believing that “captains of industry” knew better than politicians

NEW INDUSTRIES, NEW METHODS

Through the 1920s new industries and new methods of production were developed.

Electricity was changing America too, by 1929 almost all urban homes had it.

Telephones, radios, vacuum cleaners and washing machines were mass-produced; These new techniques could be produced much more cheaply and so much people could afford them.

CARS

Was the most important of these new booming industries.

In 1890s the firsts cars were made, in 1900 only 4000 cars were made. A few years later car industrie was revolutionised by Henry Ford which in 1913 he set up the world´s first moving production line.

The most famous model was the Model T. More than 15 million were produced between 1908 and 1927.

Model T 1927

By the end of 1920s the motor industry was the USA´s biggest industry; glass, leather, steel and rubber.

Automobiles used up 75% of US glass production in the 1920s.

Owning a car it wasn´t just a rich person privilege, as it was in Europe, a car was arround U$$300.