The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties were a time of great economic prosperity in America and London. The time after World War I when jazz music was blooming, huge industrial growth, higher demand and strong desire from consumers as well as significant changes in lifestyle and culture. Social and cultural features in places such as Chicago, New Orleans, New York, London and Paris spread widely after Word War I. During the Roaring Twenties the United States became dominant in world finance.

Everything seemed likely to create through modern technology, especially cars and moving pictures. Decorative items were shed for more practical ones, in daily life as well as architecture. Mass production made technology affordable to the middle class. Technology such as the automobile that was a luxury before World War I, through mass production became commonplace on the roads. Urbanization would climb to its highest levels in the 1920's, with the nation being fascinated with huge cities such as New York and Chicago that were building huge skyscrapers.

Since the United States was dominant after defeating the Germans and the Germans had to pay reparations America came up with the Dawes Plan. Which was an attempt to solve the reparations and war debts that Germany owed. The Dawes Plan relied on capital lent to Germany by American investment banks such as Morgan Guarantee Trust Company. Although the plan began to help businesses grow in Germany eventually the Germans could not sustain the high annual payments which were set at a deliberately crushing level and in 1929 the Young Plan replaced the Dawes Plan.

The Young Plan was also set to make the Germans repay the war debts that they owed to European country’s. These were also deliberately crushing set at 269 billion gold marks equal to 100 thousand tonnes of gold which was more than half the gold mined. Once again it became clear that Germany could not afford this amount over an indefinite period of time. Eventually the war debts were lowered to 112 billion gold marks.

This was a time of great prosperity in America as well as most of the world. That would all come to a screeching halt on Black Tuesday with the Stock Market Crash. On this day 16 million shares of stock were traded, a record that wouldn't be matched for 40 years. This would lead to the time known as the Great Depression, which had devastating effects in nearly every country.

Hunt, Martin, Rosenwein, Smith. The Making of the West. Roaring Twenties P, 780, 803

Young plan, 802

Dawes Plan, 802

Great Depression, 826