Causes Of The Great Depression

The Depression

A cause of the Invasion of Manchuria was the Depression that hit Japan during 1929 to 1921. The 1920’s were seen as the glamour age filled with dramatic changes politically and socially. During this decade America’s economy was strong and credit was introduced. Everyone seemed to have money however they had so much spare money that they had nothing to do with it. So instead they decided to invest what they could in the Stock Market in Wall Street. This was seen, as a gold mine where money was to be made this was a big risk because the money invested was important that they couldn’t afford to lose. However everyone was “out of sight and out of mind” this lifestyle of money to be made seduced everyone into this lifestyle. Others

‘Black Tuesday’ caused $8000 million lost by shareholders in one day. These prices continued to fall until November. After World War I treaties were created to create peace between countries and move on. However these treaties did not deal with any economic problems that resulted from WWI besides reparations. This is where the Dawes Plans is created by Charles G. Dawes to help the central powers this included Germany to pay off reparations that it agreed to pay back to France from the damaged it had caused during WWI. The US loaned Germany $2.5 billion in loans to Germany, $2 Billion of this was used to pay the Allies in reparation payments. This is then returned to the US by the allies for war debt payments, “the international financial system under the Dawes Plan and Young Plan of 1924-30” was a system used to take pressure off the European economies therefore this increased jobs. The problem with this system is that is America’s economy falls then everyone else does, this was a huge investment that America had made into this. Unfortunately the Stock Market crashed of 1929 was a key cause of the

Japan was hit by the depression during 1929; Japan depended on her exports however these dropped by 50% between 1929 and 1931. No exports meant Japan could not afford to buy raw materials that it needed. Japan was desperate for resources, they needed Rubber, Coal. Oil and Iron badly and many other raw materials for its industries. To the Japanese government the answer was to have a strong government at home and then expand overseas to places like China where Manchuria is located. Manchuria was the answer to Japan’s problems it provided Japan with man resources such as Iron ore, Bauxite, timber and markets. Another problem the depression created for Japan was it’s overpopulating nation. Japan had unemployment, falling markets and was overcrowded. There were too many people and not enough resources to feed them all. Manchuria provide resources for Japan to export and import therefore creating enough resources for everyone and more space to stop the over crowding problem. Manchuria was best place for Japan to invade it wasn’t very far and they already owned the railway near the city of Mukden. The depression was a hard hit on Japan and they were not prepared for the consequences it came with therefore invading Manchuria was the solution