Mississippi Studies

1. Mississippi Studies Chapter 4 part 1

2. Economy • Economy • Wealth, Resources, and Jobs • Consumption of goods and services • Good • Service • Every Economy ask three basic questions • What and how many goods and services will be produced? • How will they be produced? • How will the products and the wealth gained be distributed?

3. Economy • There are three types of economies • Command economy – when the government decides what and how much should be produced • Communism; dictatorship • Market economy – when the people decide what and how much is produced • Capitalism • Competition occurs when businesses compete for customers • Entrepreneurs are risk takers who start their own business • Mixed economy – when the government and private businesses work together to decide what and how much is produced

4. Economy • Even though the USA has a market economy the government is involved • Examples: • minimum wage • ban on monopolies (complete control of an industry) • protection from bad products

5. Mississippi’s Economy • Pre-Civil War • Overwhelmingly Agricultural • Depended on growing Cotton • Cotton was King • Handful of small sawmills on the Gulf Coast

6. Mississippi’s Economy • The Civil War ended the agricultural economy of the south for the following reasons: • Lack of labor • 13th amendment slaves were set free • Blockades of southern ports decreased the demand of cotton • France and Great Britain found new sources of cotton • Lumber and Railroad industry sprang up • Sharecropping developed after the Civil War • Sharecropping is when the farmer rents land from the land owner and has to buy (on credit) his products to farm from the store

7. Mississippi’s Economy • Reason’s for sharecropping • Farmers and planters had very little cash • Could not afford land • Not enough workers • Credit was difficult to get • The landowner helped the sharecropper buy the goods he needed from the local store to plant by setting up a charge account • The sharecropper could not leave the land until his debt was paid off • Sharecropping was another form of slavery • 60% of ALL Mississippi farmers were sharecroppers in the 1890s

8. Mississippi’s Economy • Timber • Antebellum timber production was done with axes and animals • Antebellum means before the Civil War • Most early timber businesses was near a river • The railroad benefited the timber industry in the following ways • The RR was a faster method of transportation • Allowed timber to be cut in the interior of the state • Connected saw mill towns to ports along the gulf • The Piney Woods lumber boom would not have been possible without the railroad • Laurel was the largest lumber center in the state • Gulfport was established as a shipping port for lumber

9. Mississippi’s economy • Mississippi became one of the nation’s largest lumber producing states • Furniture is one of our main products made from the tree

10. Great Migration • When a large number of African Americans left the state between 1910-1920 • Reason’s for leaving • Escape discrimination • Find jobs

11. Farming in the early 1900s • 75% of Mississippians worked on farms • At one point the boll weevil destroyed an entire cotton crop

12. World War i • Lasted from 1914-1918 • The main causes of the war • Militarism • Nationalism • Alliances • Imperialism • The event that caused the war was the Assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary • Two sides of the war • Allied Powers – Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and the USA (1917) • Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, and

14. World War I • Reasons the US joined the war in 1917 • Sinking of the Lusitania • Sinking of merchant ships by German U-boats • Loss of innocent lives • Zimmerman Note

15. Impact of World War I on the US • Transition from a peace time to a war time economy (mobilization) • Total War is when everything in the economy is directed toward the war effort • Examples • Food Administration • Directed by Herbert Hoover • Meatless and Wheatless • Victory Gardens • Fuel Administration • Harry Garfield • Heatless • Factories stopped making goods for the citizens and started making goods for the war • Selective Service Act required me 18 to 45 to sign up for the draft

16. Impact of World war I on the US • Paying for the war • They raised taxes • Sold government bonds

19. Opposition to the war • Opposition? • The committee on public information was designed to gain support for the war • To increase support they used propaganda (exaggerations) • Through advertisements • Changed names of things derived from German words

21. Opposition to the war • The Sedition Act made it illegal to write and or say bad things about the government • Espionage Act made it illegal to spy on the US • Some people believed that these acts violated their rights. • Does it?

22. Men and women of the war • Soldiers during the war usually fought using the new technique of trench warfare • The land between the trenches was known as no-mans land • Trench warfare led to a stalemate along the border of France and Germany • Several new weapons were developed during the war from tanks to machine guns • The most feared weapon was poison gas

25. Men and women of the war • Women had to take on the roles of men during WWI • Why? • Jobs women took on • Bricklayers • Mechanics • Electricians • Nurses/Pharmacists • Women considered it their patriotic duty • As a result of their hard work the 19th amendment was passed after the war

26. Men and women of the war • Minorities served in segregated units • Mexicans came to the US for the following reasons: • Shortage of labor (farms) • Chaos in the Mexican government • Mexicans settled in barrios – is an immigrant community

27. The end of the war • November 11 at 11 am in 1918 an armistice is signed • Armistice – cease fire • Allied Powers won • Paris Peace Conference • Was a meeting of the big four to determine the end of war • Big Four • US – Woodrow Wilson • France – Georges Clemenceau • Italy – Vittorio Orlando • Great Britain – David Lloyd George

28. The end of the war • Treaty of Versailles was the document that ended the war • Provisions of the war • Germany was blamed for the war • Germany had to pay reparations • Reparations payments for damages • Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire were split into different countries • League of Nations was created – designed to prevent future wars • The US did not accept the Treaty

31. Effects of the war • Red Scare in America – the fear of the spread of communism • Immigration was limited because the government feared immigrant would help spread communism • Inflation in Germany • Resulted in poverty • Increased the profits of the Mississippi farmer during the war