Starter quiz
- Write the missing word. A ______ is a government tax on foreign-produced goods sold in a country
- 'tariff' ✓
- What were the Jim Crows laws?
- Laws which enforced segregation. ✓
- Laws which enforced Prohibition.
- Laws which introduced tariffs.
- Laws which limited immigration.
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- What was traded on Wall Street?
- agricultural products
- consumer goods
- shares in companies ✓
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- Write the missing word. ______ were attacks by mobs which involved killing a person they considered guilty of committing an offence, even though they hadn't been put on trial.
- 'lynchings' ✓
- How did average American wages change during the 1920s?
- decreased by 20%
- decreased by 10%
- remained the same
- increased by 10%
- increased by 20% ✓
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- Which statement is most accurate?
- Mass production led to fewer people being employed in manufacturing jobs.
- Mass production led to workers becoming less efficient.
- Mass production led to production times and costs falling. ✓
- Mass production led to poor quality products being manufactured.
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Exit quiz
- Match each keyword with its correct definition.
- buying on the margin⇔when investors bought shares but borrowed money to pay 90% of the cost ✓
- speculation⇔buying shares in the hope their value rises and re-selling them ✓
- stock market⇔the place where investors can buy and sell shares in companies ✓
- Write the missing word. 13 000 00 shares were sold on Wall Street on ______ Thursday.
- 'Black' ✓
- How did the number of Americans playing the stock market change between 1920 and 1929?
- It doubled.
- It grew five times larger. ✓
- It grew seven times smaller.
- It halved.
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- Why were bank failures a problem for ordinary Americans?
- They couldn't buy anything if banks were closed.
- They had to wait to be paid.
- They lost all of the savings kept with those banks. ✓
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- Which statement is most accurate?
- European countries accepted US tarriffs.
- US tariffs encouraged European countries to lower their own tariffs.
- European countries retaliated against US tariffs. ✓
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- Starting with the earliest, sort the following events from the Wall Street Crash into chronological order.
- 1⇔US business profits begin to decline
- 2⇔Cautious investors sell-off shares
- 3⇔Black Thursday and Black Tuesday
- 4⇔Shareholders and speculators go bankrupt
- 5⇔Customers unable to repay loans to banks
- 6⇔Banks collapse
- 7⇔Ordinary Americans lose their savings
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Lesson Details
Key learning points
- Speculation led to increases in private debt and shares became overvalued.
- American goods were overproduced in the US but tariffs made them too expensive for European markets.
- Share prices collapsed during the Wall Street Crash, ruining many speculators and shareholders.
- 659 banks collapsed in 1929.
- Bank failures hurt millions of Americans, including those who had not traded in shares.
Common misconception
Only shareholders and speculators lost out from the Wall Street Crash.
Once speculators went bankrupt, they were unable to repay their debts to banks causing them to fail. Bank failures wiped out the savings of millions of Americans.
Keywords
Stock market - a stock market is the place where investors can buy and sell shares in companies
Speculation - speculation is when investors purchase shares, often with borrowed money, in the hope of selling them off in future for a profit
Tariff - a tariff is a government tax on foreign-produced goods sold in a country
Shares - some companies sell shares in order to raise money; people who own shares in a company receive part of the company’s profits
Export - an export is a good which a country sells abroad
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