Oklahoma Social Studies USH.C.4.2.B
The Standard
- USH.C.4
- Analyze the cycles of economic boom and bust of the 1920s and 1930s on the transformation of the United States of America’s government and society.
- USH.C.4.2
- Analyze the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties and the collapse of the United States of America’s economy, leading to the Great Depression.
Examine the various factors contributing to and exacerbating the global depression, including German reparations, Allied war debts, United States of America loans to Europe, and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff’s strain on international trade.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · USH.C.4.2
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students trace how U.S. loans helped Germany pay reparations to Britain and France, which owed war debts to the United States. They explain how cuts in lending and higher tariffs deepened the global depression.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student draws the payment loop correctly and shows what happens when U.S. loans slow. They explain that tariffs and retaliation reduced trade, but did not cause the 1929 crash.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think Germany paid reparations directly to the United States or that U.S. loans were gifts. Some think the Smoot-Hawley Tariff caused the 1929 crash, though it became law afterward.
How to Assess It
- On an exit ticket, have students draw payment arrows among the United States, Germany, Britain, and France. Ask them to explain what happens when U.S. loans stop.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs country cards and counters; move U.S. loans to Germany, reparations to Britain and France, and war debt payments to the United States.
Ask students to write: If U.S. banks stop lending to Germany, what might happen to French war debt payments?
Give teams cards marked U.S. loans, loan cuts, debt payments, and higher tariffs; have them sort what keeps money moving and what disrupts it.
Price a $10 imported backpack with a $2 tariff; ask how higher prices and retaliatory tariffs could change sales in both countries.
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Related Standards
- MWH.C.6.4.A
Describe the various causes and consequences of the global economic collapse and evaluate how democratic and authoritarian governments responded to the Great De...
- OKH.C.7.1
Identify local and national economic conditions which contributed to the Great Depression and were characterized by mass unemployment and human suffering.
- E.C.8
Examine the impact of the global economy on domestic conditions within the United States of America’s economy.
- USH.C.4.2
Analyze the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties and the collapse of the United States of America’s economy, leading to the Great Depression.
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