This essay will mainly examine the main reasons for the boom of America in the 1920s.

Introduction: This essay will mainly examine the main reasons for the boom of America in the 1920s. Boom can be referred to as the increase in economy, industry, population and different other factors. Moving out of the poor lands of Europe and Asia, there was a place found at last where one could find Happiness or more precisely MONEY. This glorious land was the ‘richest country in the world’– America!

“European luxuries were are often necessities in America. One could feed a whole country in the Old world with what America wastes. To the Americans, Europe is a land of paupers, and Asia a continent of starving wretches”

America was also eligible to be known as ‘The country of Luxuries’, 'the land of emigrants’, ‘the land of prosperity’, ‘the land of hope’, etc. Their way of living was luxurious; almost all people from working class to high-class rich people enjoyed quite a luxurious life. This high economical and social developments in referred to as an “economic boom”. The basic key-factors that contributed to this economic boom are as follows:

Resources
Impact of First World War,
Technological changes,
Mass-production,
Mass-marketing,
Mass-consuming,
Credit,
Confidence and
The policies of the republican presidents.

The following paragraphs would suggest why and to what extent these factors altered and improved the American economy.

Impact of First World War: America had emerged from World War I with a strong economy. America itself had not been attacked and had not joined the war until 1917. Even though USA drew out of its policy of isolationism towards the end of the First World War, it emerged extremely well from the war. It did not have to rebuild itself as the European nations did. Despite few social problems, America’s economy developed rapidly after the war. In other words, the First World War helped US in many ways some of which are:

-Since Europe had to rebuild itself from the massive devastation, the European population decided to leave for America. America’s population increased drastically. An increase in population meant there was more number of hands to work. This also meant that there were more mouths to feed. Nevertheless, the fact that two hands and only one mouth proved to help America. There was enough money from trade as well as internal mass production.

-One–way trade with Europe through out the war helped prosperity and money pour into America. This money for more than enough for food, raw materials and armaments too. High economy meant high ...

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-One–way trade with Europe through out the war helped prosperity and money pour into America. This money for more than enough for food, raw materials and armaments too. High economy meant high production, high production meant high marketing, and high marketing gradually meant an increase in the economy. Hence, the world war one had an important impact on the boom of 1920s.

Resources: The money USA earned by one-way trade with Europe during the War aided America in gaining an incredible amount of rich resources like coal, minerals, oil, land and people. Coal, wood and other minerals provided the basic raw materials needed for different industries. One other main resource as mentioned before was a large population. A large population meant a large-scale production. This is because all people worked to earn money and hence, they all worked well with the raw resources. Hence, production increased increasing the American economy in turn. Hence, this proved to be yet another factor for the economic boom in the 1920s.

Technological changes: The 1920s was a period of great technological developments. Technology showed its full advance by means of plastic and Bakelite production for domestic purposes, conveyor belts, automatic switchboards, glass tubing, etc. One other major industry that developed due to the technological growth was the electrical industry. Electricity provided cheap and more efficient power supply to the factories. By 1927 sixty three percent of houses in the United States had electrical power. It also led to the production of new consumer goods like refrigerators, radios and vacuum cleaners. With a variety of goods produces, the market for the variety increased. People who did not want to spend much of their time in household were huge. The invention of vacuum cleaners and domestic goods, which reduced work, attracted the public towards it. Hence, they provided a major part of the income, which meant that they indirectly played a role in the boom.

Mass-production: Mass-production or large-scale production of goods needed technology, which was sufficiently available in America. The work of Henry Ford in the production of automobiles created a technological revolution in the industrial world. He invented the assembly line. Assembly line was the procedure by which the parts of the good to be produced moves around the factory. This makes it easy for a worker to get what is needed immediately. Hence, the rate of production increased. The high-speed production meant higher number of goods produced at a cheap rate. This in turn meant that a huge market accompanied by and an increase in the economy was awaiting. Henceforth, mass production played a major role in the economic boom.

Mass marketing: High production of goods needed a huge marketing. There was a need of a huge population for the goods to sold. If not, the whole system would have been a flop. This need led to the development of a brand new industry – Advertising. There were many different sophisticated techniques used to persuade people to buy it. Mass marketing contributed to the boom in two ways:

It helped the development and expansion of advertising companies and
It brought in main part of economy by selling the mass-produced goods.

Mass consuming: The birth of the Advertising agencies gained drastic success in persuading people about different products. Mass marketed products were bought in masses by people. There was also an expansion in the mail-order companies. This enabled even the people of rural areas to buy goods from the center of America. Hence, mass consuming led to the development of mail–order companies as well as the birth of yet a new cause for the boom – mass consuming by bringing in huge amounts of money.

Credit: Credit or an installment method was launched so that even the middle class people could afford buying expensive goods. The cost of their good could be paid in more than a turn. This increased the economy by increasing the market for goods. Henceforth, it indirectly increases the boom.

Confidence: Americans had a high rate of confidence in what they did – business, sales, buying, etc. It was the confidence that made people buy the goods and bring in economy. This was the contribution of confidence to the economic boom.

The policies of the Republican presidents: ‘A car in every garage and a chicken in every pot’. This was the aim of American politicians in the 1920s. They did three things to bring their aim to action:

-Lowered taxes on the profit allowing money to be invested on industry.

-Implied tariffs on imported goods. This reduced the importing of goods and gave opportunity for American goods to be marketed and develop.

-Non-interference over financial institutes or business.

The boom: These above-mentioned factors led to the economic boom in the 1920s. Once the economic boom started, it developed by itself. All the causes of the boom were interconnected.

Consequences of the Boom: On analysing the consequences of the boom, it can be said that the advantages from the boom overruled the disadvantages.

Conclusion: Last but not least, it would be worth while to say that the boom in US all started from the Impact of the first World War and improved itself with the help of different factors like new technology, Mass production, mass marketing and at last mass consuming!

Preethi Kumar,

Grade 9.