Transcript 101 Facts You Need to Know About VA SOL Test - pams

34. The United States is tied to England by history, politics,
government, values, and economics.
Because the United States was once an English
colony, and because we share political systems
(democracy), social values (individual rights), and
economic systems (capitalism) the United States
supported England during both the First World War
and during World War II.
35. Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Point Plan
President Woodrow Wilson suggested
the Fourteen Point Plan for peace in
Europe following World War I. Many
part of his plan were included in the
Treaty of Versailles. The most
important part of the plan to Wilson
was the creation of the League of
Nations – an international
peacekeeping organization to be
created in Europe.
36. The USA never signed the Treaty of Versailles and never
joined the League of Nations.
37. The automobile changes life in America.
The automobile changed the way Americans lived:
• People had greater and more reliable mobility.
• Jobs were created in road construction, parts stores, service
stations, and tourism.
• People were able to live in the suburbs and drive to work in the
city.
• In the 1950s, the Interstate Highway System was created by
President Dwight David Eisenhower.
38. Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio.
39. David Sarnoff revolutionized the broadcasting industry
– both in radio and television, with NBC: the National
Broadcasting Company.
40. Electrification changed America by making work easier
and life more entertaining.
Labor saving products like washing machines, stoves, and water
pumps.
Electric lighting increased productivity and made homes safer
and more comfortable.
Entertainment in radio and motion picture machines.
Communication improved due to
telephones and telegraphs.
41. During the Great Migration in the 1910s and 1920s,
African-Americans moved North to take jobs in
industrialized cities.
42. Artist Jacob Lawrence was an African-American painter most
famous for his portraits of blacks in urban settings. His most
famous trilogy of paintings features “The Great Migration.”
43. Langston Hughes was the leading poet of the Harlem
Dream Deferred
Renaissance.
by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream
deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
44. Jazz is an African-American musical innovation, born in
New Orleans and featuring improvisation.
Louis
Armstrong
Duke
Ellington
Bessie
Smith
New
Orleans,
LA
45. Georgia O’Keeffe was an artist whose work featured
flowers, symmetry and Southwestern themes.
46. Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, was a
description of life among the wealthy elite during the 1920s.
He was a member of the so-called “Lost Generation.”
47. Author John Steinbeck wrote the Grapes of Wrath, a
novel about a family which was forced to take work as
migrants in California when the Dust Bowl and the Great
Depression forced them off of their land.
48. Composers Aaron Copland and George Gershwin were
musicians who wrote uniquely American songs.
Aaron Copland
George Gershwin
49. Buying stocks “on the margin” – or using borrowed
money to purchase stocks – was one of the causes of the
Great Depression.
50. The Great Depression’s impact on Americans.
Almost 10,000 banks failed – they had loaned money out to the
stockbrokers who purchased shares “on the margin.”
Unemployment rates reached as high as 25% in 1933, the worst
year of the Depression.
Millions were homeless and hungry during the Depression;
under President Herbert Hoover, little was done to improve
conditions, and shantytowns called “Hoovervilles” were
established on the edges of towns.
Farm incomes dropped dramatically.
51. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was an
attempt by the federal government to solve the economic
problems of the Depression.
52. The Social Security Act provided financial assistance for
the elderly, the handicapped, and for dependent children in
need. The program is still in effect today.
53. The New Deal created jobs programs to employ citizens in
government jobs: The Works Progress Administration, the Public
Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and
National Youth Administration just to name a few.
54. The Dust Bowl ruined crops on the Great Plains near
Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas.
55. World War II was caused by a many factors:
 Worldwide economic depression caused poverty and desperation.
 Germany owed billions of dollars to other European nations over World
War I, and hyperinflation worsened the economic depression there.
 Fascist dictators had risen to power with militarily aggressive plans to
conquer territories:
Germany – Adolf Hitler
Italy – Benito Mussolini
Japan – Hideki Tojo
The Axis Powers
56. The Allied Powers in World War II:
 Democratic Nations – with the exception of the communist Soviet Union.
 France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and many other nations were occupied
during the war.
 England fought against Germany from 1939 to 1945. Winston Churchill
was the Prime Minister of England.
 The Soviet Union fought against Germany after they were invaded by the
Soviets in 1940. Joseph Stalin was the leader of the nation.
 The United States declared war on the Germans in late 1941. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was the President from 1941 (the attack of Pearl Harbor,
Dec. 7, 1941 – April of 1945.) Harry Truman was President of the United
States at the end of World War II and chose to use atomic weapons on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
57. At the start of World War II, the United States followed
an isolationist foreign policy.
 Neutrality Acts were passed in the
United States to show commitment to
the policy of isolationism. Groups like
the America First Committee fought
against US involvement in Europe.
 Economic aid eventually began with the
Cash and Carry policy and later the Lend
Lease Act. Americans prepared for war
with the Selective Service Act as well.
 Winston Churchill and Franklin
Roosevelt agreed to end dictatorship and
fascism in Europe with the Atlantic
Charter before the United States even
entered the war.
58. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in a surprise attack
on December 7, 1941. The United States immediately declared war
on Japan. Germany declared war on the United States.
59. German aggression had caused World War II to begin in
Europe long before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
 Germany had taken over the Rhineland, the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia,
the remainder of Czechoslovakia, and Austria before the invasion of Poland
on Sept. 1, 1939.
 The Soviet Union had signed a non-aggression pact with Germany before
the war, and invade the Baltics and Poland, as well.
 Eventually, Germany would invade most of the nations in Europe, including
Denmark, Belgium, Holland, France, and even the Soviet Union – they
betrayed their own agreement.
 German planes bombed Great Britain to rubble in the Battle of Britain in
1940.
 Nevertheless, the United States would not become involved in World War
II until the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
60. The turning point in World War II on the Eastern Front was the Battle
of Stalingrad, fought in the Soviet Union in 1942 - Soviet oil reserves there
made it an important strategic victory for the USSR..
61. The D-Day invasion was planned out by Dwight David
Eisenhower, and was the turning point in World War II on
the Western Front of Europe. D-Day was June 6, 1944.
62. The turning point in World War II in the Pacific,
against the Japanese, was the Battle of Midway.
63. World War II ended when the United States dropped
two atomic bombs on Japanese cities: Hiroshima on August
6, 1945 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.
 V-E day in Europe had been on May 8, 1945, when Soviet soldiers captured
Berlin and American and British soldiers took the Western portion of the
city.
 The nuclear weapons used on Japan in August of 1945 were authorized by
President Harry S Truman, who had taken over the Presidency when FDR
passed away in April of 1945.
 The Japanese formally surrendered to the United States on September 2, 1945
on board the USS Missouri, at anchor in Tokyo Harbor.
64. During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany imprisoned and
systematically murdered over six million Jewish people and close to
thirteen million people overall in death camps. The anti-Semitism
which existed throughout Europe made Nazi sympathizers and war
criminals of those who cooperated in Hitler’s “Final Solution.”
Dozens were put to death for crimes against humanity during the
Nuremburg trials after World War II.
65. The Great Depression came to an end during World War II
thanks to all of the factory jobs which opened up in the United States.
Both women and minority groups were sought after to work in the
war munitions plants during World War II.
Rosie the Riveter
African-Americans
66. Americans on the Homefront rationed food and
resources to support the war effort during World War II
(and had done so in World War I, as well!)
67. Japanese Americans were forced to give up their
property and possessions and required to live in relocation
camps during World War II.