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What was the purpose of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)?
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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was established to stimulate economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region severely affected by the Great Depression. It aimed to modernize the area through flood control, reforestation, and the development of agriculture and industry, primarily by constructing hydroelectric dams. These initiatives provided electricity, curbed flooding, and created jobs, ultimately attracting new industries and improving economic conditions in one of the nation's poorest regions.
The purpose of the TVA was to contribute to the economic development of the Tennessee Valley in particular and to improve economic conditions in the South and the whole US more generally.
One of the aims of the New Deal was to improve the long term economic prospects for the whole country. The idea was that this would prevent future depressions from occurring. One long term goal was to improve the economic conditions in poor areas like the Tennessee Valley. This is what the TVA was meant to do.
Specifically, the TVA built a number of dams. The dams were meant to bring electricity to the area, to make the river more navigable (which would increase trade) and to prevent floods. By doing all of these things, the dams set up under the TVA would contribute greatly to the economic development of the region.
What were the goals of the Tennessee Valley Authority?
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the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is usually remembered only for the construction of hydroelectric dams in the Tennessee Valley region, it was originally intended to do much more. Essentially, the TVA was intended to provide a stimulus for the region, one of the poorest in the United States. It provided education and valuable farm implements, including tractors and fertilizer, to area farmers, engaged in anti-erosion projects similar to those conducted by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and sought to provide jobs to the region. The main way it did this, of course, was through the construction of the hydroelectric dams mentioned already. These dams, built along the river, would do several things. First, they would provide electricity to the region, a project the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) would later attempt to do elsewhere in the rural South. Second, their construction would pump much-needed money into the region, where skilled jobs were scarce. In the long term, it was hoped that the electric infrastructure would attract industry to the Tennessee Valley. Third, the TVA would curb the floods that periodically devastated the region. These measures, a combination of the relief, recovery, and reform motives often ascribed to New Deal programs, were intended to modernize a very economically challenged region, and one which had suffered horribly even before the Depression hit.
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What were the goals of the Tennessee Valley Authority?
The Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, was one of a number of agencies set up by President Roosevelt under the New Deal to help tackle the chronic economic problems of the Great Depression. More specifically, the TVA aimed to provide for the economic regeneration of the Tennessee Valley, an area of the country hit particularly hard by the Depression. This would be achieved by flood control, reforestation, and the strategic development of agriculture and industry, in the expectation that many new jobs would be created.
New businesses and new industries would need to rely on a regular supply of cheap energy. However, private energy companies were unwilling to provide electricity to rural parts of the Tennessee Valley: it was considered way too expensive. As a result, only around 10% of rural dwellers in the area had access to electricity. Under the TVA, a massive program of rural electrification was begun, largely through the construction of hydroelectric dams. This brought electricity to thousands of homes and businesses which had previously been without electricity.
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