The Great Depression
By Lizzie Stephens and Justin Montanari
General Information
The Great Depression was an economic issue that began in 1929. The issue killed the economies of many nations and led to many problems such as financial hardships for millions of people. This has had the biggest impact on the U.S. society, when 5,500 banks closed and 32,000 businesses went bankrupt.
Effects on other countries
The Great Depression also created problems in other countries. Economies of Latin American and Asian countries, based around primary products of the North Atlantic region, quickly collapsed due to the loss of their markets. In Latin America, multiple governments fell between 1929 and 1931. It put America in a place that let its allies down.
The Dust Bowl
While america was already under great economic stress to add to the fact, know as the dust bowl an area of 150,000 square miles that covered parts of texas, oklahoma, colorado, kansas, and new mexico were under severe drought and with the high winds in that area it wiped out what little of there land was left, which is how it gets its name the dust bowl. For many of the farmers the great depression had put them at edge and when the dust bowl completely wiped out there land they then abandoned it and tried to start over in california. This caused many problems on top of many people not being able to afford food the markets loss a huge part of there stock due to the dust bowl.
The Recovery
One of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's near ideas for recovery included setting up a toy-lending program. Children could borrow a different toy every fear weeks just the way they borrowed books from a public library.While that failed the government needed to think of how they could get out of the hole they put themselves in. the reason we got out of our depression is unusual but a majority of it was due in part to FDR's relief programs, and his plan to fix the economy, called the New Deal. These helped a lot, like regulating trade, improving the farming industry, etc., but actually didn't root us out of the Depression.
It actually ended when we started producing war goods for Britain in 1940. This created a bunch of jobs, and the economy improved. People started spending again. This is the only good thing about Hitler, due to his starting World War II, it took the world out of Depression.Now while Hitler was an evil man his actions did bail us out of the Great Depression.Other reasons we were brought out of the depression was that FDR first closed the banks to reassess how they handled their money. Then after the first few days, some safe ones were reopened. He also started the FDIC to insure people's money in case their bank was to close. The New Deal created groups to carry out relief, help the poor, and help farmers. These agencies created millions of new jobs, such as people to clean streets, build dams, plant trees, maintain bridges and infrastructure. The depression continued on through WWII...that's why there were ration coupons and a lot of metal was recycled. But the war also opened new jobs in defense industries.It was the end of the war that cycled in better economic times.
It actually ended when we started producing war goods for Britain in 1940. This created a bunch of jobs, and the economy improved. People started spending again. This is the only good thing about Hitler, due to his starting World War II, it took the world out of Depression.Now while Hitler was an evil man his actions did bail us out of the Great Depression.Other reasons we were brought out of the depression was that FDR first closed the banks to reassess how they handled their money. Then after the first few days, some safe ones were reopened. He also started the FDIC to insure people's money in case their bank was to close. The New Deal created groups to carry out relief, help the poor, and help farmers. These agencies created millions of new jobs, such as people to clean streets, build dams, plant trees, maintain bridges and infrastructure. The depression continued on through WWII...that's why there were ration coupons and a lot of metal was recycled. But the war also opened new jobs in defense industries.It was the end of the war that cycled in better economic times.
- 4 years ago
Did you know?
- Americans found ways to create things with the little things that they could afford. For example, they mixed ketchup and water to make "tomato soup" and water, sugar, and a drop of maple flavoring was poured on top of pancakes.
- When money was scarce children would make kites for fun because it was affordable. The materials were sticks, paper, string, and rag scraps for the tail of the kite.
- The game we know today as miniature golf began as "midget golf" during the Depression. People could not afford to play on real miniature golf courses so they used old tires, scrap wood, rusty pipes, and other waste items to make obstacles golf courses on empty lots.
- People could barely afford to even buy food, so buying clothes wouldn't happen. People would replace worn-out shoe soles with cardboard. They would line their shirts, pants, and jackets with old newspaper in the cold weather.