Answer to Question #163785 in History for Snow

Question

AP World History Short Answer Question HW Help

The passage used to answer the questions:

When the [crisis] struck, nationalists were quick to identify the cause in [economic liberalism]. . . . As the crisis spread from country to country, global commerce and the gold standard increasingly came under attack. Once praised as the engine of economic progress and prosperity, international trade was now viewed as a source of foreign contagion. More than ever before, the nation’s economy had to be protected from cheap goods from abroad, and saved from reliance on foreign materials. [Governments raised tariffs] and each time a government [did so], it increased the pressure on others to do likewise. This generated considerable hostility. . . . The failure to cooperate in the face of the economic threat of the early 1930s was a harbinger of the inability of the powers to work together to deal with the threat of aggressive nationalism in the latter part of the decade.”

By: John E. Moser, United States historian, book published in 2015

a) Identify ONE piece of evidence that Moser uses in the passage to support his claim regarding nationalist perceptions of liberal economic policies.

b) Explain ONE development in the late 1930s and early 1940s that could be used to support Moser’s argument in the last sentence of the passage.

c) Explain ONE economic policy, other than those mentioned in the passage, that governments in Western Europe and North America adopted in the 1930s to address the economic crisis referred to in the passage.

Answer 1

a.     Global commerce, a key feature of economic liberalism, was critically under attack as the crisis spread through other countries. The U.S government had to use protectionist policies to safeguard its economy, and other governments imposed retaliatory tariffs, aggravating the crisis.

b.    The Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941 can be used to support Moser’s argument that the failure of states to work together during the Depression was a harbinger of their incapacity to work together to deal with the unfolding aggressive nationalism in the late 1930s. The attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan happened after unfruitful negotiations between the United States and Japan. Japan believed expanding into China’s territory and taking over its import market would solve its economic problems. The U.S government retaliated to this aggression by imposing economic sanctions on Japan and enforcing trade embargoes. Japan did not back down. A series of negotiations followed but no state would budge, leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

c.     Expansionary monetary policy by means of abandoning the gold standard was an economic policy tool used by countries in Western Europe and later in North America to deal with the Great Depression. Many countries, led by Great Britain, abandoned the rigid gold standard to increase money supply in the economy. Central banks could lower their interest rates when pegged off the dollar and act as lenders for banks. Also, leaving the gold standard caused a currency depreciation thus strengthening their balance of payments. The United States also dropped the gold standard in 1933 to ease the aggravating deflation levels.