MISSISSIPPI STUDIES

C H A P T E R 4 P

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ECONOMY • Economy• Wealth, Resources, and Jobs• Consumption of goods and services• Good• Service

• Every Economy ask three basic questions1. What and how many goods and services will be

produced?2. How will they be produced?3. How will the products and the wealth gained be

distributed?

ECONOMY • There are three types of economies 1. Command economy – when the government decides what and

how much should be produced Communism; dictatorship

2. 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

3. Mixed economy – when the government and private businesses work together to decide what and how much is produced

ECONOMY• Even though the USA has a market economy the government

is involved• Examples:

1. minimum wage2. ban on monopolies (complete control of an industry)3. protection from bad products

MISSISSIPPI’S ECONOMY Pre-Civil War Overwhelmingly Agricultural

Depended on growing Cotton

Cotton was King

Handful of small sawmills on the Gulf Coast

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

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

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

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

GREAT MIGRATION When a large number of African Americans left the state

between 1910-1920• Reason’s for leaving • Escape discrimination • Find jobs

FARMING IN THE EARLY 1900S• 75% of Mississippians worked on farms • At one point the boll weevil destroyed an entire cotton crop

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

WORLD WAR I Reasons the US joined the war in 19171. Sinking of the Lusitania2. Sinking of merchant ships by German U-boats3. Loss of innocent lives4. Zimmerman Note

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

IMPACT OF WORLD WAR I ON THE USPaying for the war • They raised taxes • Sold government bonds

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

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?

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

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

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

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 1. US – Woodrow Wilson2. France – Georges Clemenceau3. Italy – Vittorio Orlando4. Great Britain – David Lloyd George

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

EFFECTS OF THE WAR 1.Red Scare in America – the fear of the

spread of communism Immigration was limited because the government feared immigrant would help spread communism

2.Inflation in Germany Resulted in poverty 3.Increased the profits of the Mississippi

farmer during the war