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Great Depression Essay

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The United States once lost 14 billion dollars in a single day. This instantaneous drop capped a decade of prosperity. After World War I, the United States economy was booming and rapidly increasing. This period was known as “The Roaring Twenties” because the unemployment rate was low, businesses were profiting, and homes were selling for about $6,500 or $111,120 in today’s United States dollar. Then on Tuesday, October 29, 1929, called “Black Tuesday”, the stock market crashed and the United States economy rapidly declined. The United States then “exported” the depression to the rest of the world. the Great Depression was a significant turning point in history because it helped the United States' westward migration, caused many families …show more content…

In the United States alone, 78 percent of people were considered to be in poverty in 1932 compared to 66 percent in 1914. Even though prices dropped by 25 percent during the depression, the unemployment rate around the world jumped from 3 to 23 percent in three years. In 1931, industrial production declined by more than 45 percent in The United States; 40 percent in Germany; 29 percent in France; and 14 percent in Britain from 1929. For an average American family from 1929 to 1932, household income dropped from $2,300 to $1,500 and the average weekly earning for a factory worker went from $25 to $17. (“Gross Hours and Earnings of Production Workers in Manufacturing - Page 38 | Toc | FRASER | St. Louis Fed”) and (“Great Depression …show more content…

Germany was especially hit hard. Many banks in Europe were failing to stay afloat and ended up failing completely. In mid-June 1931 German banks closed and Germany announced they could no longer pay off their WWI debts. Since many countries relied on Germany paying their debt to run their governments, this closure lead to several other governments cutting most of their budgets. The Nazis were a rising political party in Germany as well which was another threat to other countries. Austria and France were other largely affected countries. Austria’s largest bank collapsed just before Germany’s did and France had skyrocketing unemployment rates and problems with the neighboring Nazis. In 1933, 60 nations met in London at the World Economic Conference to discuss solutions, but they failed, leaving each country to recover on its own. Many countries placed “their” economic need above the rest of the world and that was how Adolf Hitler rose to power in

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According to Document 2 “In the period following the end of World War 1, Germany experianced a disastrous perioid of inflation. The German governemnts method of financing the war by borrowing heavily and printing large quantities of unbacked currency began th inflationary spiral. This lead to political violence.” The german economy was in ruins at the time, one us dollar was equivilant to 4,200,000,000,000 German marks at one point. This helped Hitler Rise to power because the people felt that their economy was very very weak because of the government, and they wanted a new upgraded government.

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[Doc 1]. This responsibility forced Germany into massive debt, as they had to pay large sums of money while their economy was still in ruins from the war. This plight initially led to the weakened economy described

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The critical problems in the late 1920’s, threatening american economy was the older industries such as textiles, steel, and railroads, which were basic to the fundamental well-being of the economy, were barely profitable. Crop prices dropped, americans thought the nation would continue to prosper under Republican leadership. The bottom fell out of the market and the nation's confidence, and half of the banks failed. The causes of the stock market crashed and the Great Depression made the collapse of the economy occur more quickly and the depression worse than it could have been. Many were out of a job, and others experienced pay cuts and reduced hours.

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The Great Depression was a roughly 10-year period in the early twentieth century that was shaped by the United States’ national economic crisis, but affected the global economy, as well. It began in 1929, when the stock market first crashed and stock prices began to fall, but only 2% of Americans owned stock and were affected at this time. (1:48) It wasn’t until tens of thousands of people began to withdraw money from banks and hundreds closed across the country, leaving 28 states bank-less (5:32) that the population truly began to suffer. Unemployment rates skyrocket and more and more people begin to go bankrupt, with 34 million Americans left with no source of income by 1932.

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America faced many adversities in its past, one of its greatest adversities was not war nor disease, but in fact, an economic disaster. In the years of 1929 – 1939, America suffered exponential damage to its economy and stock market. The Great Depression had severe effects on the United States such as an economic crisis, the need for a new president, a call for action, and as seen in Of Mice and Men, the cause for migrant workers. The peak of the great depression was unarguably the hardest time of the whole great depression. Between the peak and the trough of the downturn, industrial production in the United States declined 47 percent and real Gross Domestic Product fell to 30 percent (Benson, “The Great Depression”).

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World War 1 took place between 1914 and 1918. The war caused Germany and Italy to lose lots of their resources and money, which made them go into debt. When the Great Depression hit, the United States lost a great amount of money. Because the United States was supporting Europe financially, many European countries relying on the United States suffered tremendously. This caused widespread suffering due to the hyperinflation in the economy.

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Although, many other countries were in debt and their economy was torn apart. In attempt to help their own countries, many leaders started raising tariffs or creating some. This stopped international trade across the world because it became harder to trade in

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During the 1930s, America experienced one of the worst 10 years in history; the Great Depression. During this time, many citizens struggled with many problems, including extreme poverty. This resulted into people changing their lifestyle to adapt to the failing economy. As he was President, Franklin D. Roosevelt felt as if he failed the American people and created programs to help these people. The Great Depression had a terrible effect on people, such as changing a person’s lifestyle, people having feelings of hopelessness, and the President feeling as if he failed the American people.

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The great depression is an immense tragedy that took millions of people in the United States from work. It marked the beginning of involvement from the government to the country’s economy and also the society as a whole. We still feel and deal with the ramifications from the laws and policies made to get us out of the economic drought and ensure it never happens again. There is a huge contrast between the 1920’s and the 1930’s as the what they call ‘The roaring twenties” was full of prosperity and wealth due to the destruction of Europe and its economy after World War One. The 1920’s were truly crucial for the U.S as it is when it becomes a truly modernized nation.

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Although some European economies, such as Britain and Germany, had problems with money after the First World War ended. Low unemployment rates and stock prices were up—it was great. Then the depression hit. The major obstacles the crash caused were overproduction, unemployment, and inflation. These just kept pushing the panic and economic debt of the world along with all the rest of the Great Depression’s issues.

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Europe needed money from our banks because, they had to sell goods to Americans to pay off their debts from World War 1. Due to the fact banks had no more money to give, they shut down causing our foreign allies to spend less money. Since the United States had to lower their funds, tons of people lost their jobs. By 1932, 25% of Americans didn’t have a job. For the people who didn’t lose their jobs, their pay got cut.

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Before the great depression started Americas was going through what was known as the roaring 20s. The roaring 20s was an event in which America’s economy was at its highest and it didn’t seem like they were going to stop. As a matter of fact the president (Warren G. Harding) himself said that all poverty in America will be eliminated. Everything at the time was crucial and effects are lives to this very day, an article in history.com really

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However German government printed more money to pay off the debt but it caused inflation. The government had 300 million papers and work 24 hours a day to pay a huge amount of debt. Germany wasn’t earning money properly, so it didn’t affect their wealth, which means they were still poor while they are keep making money. So prices of goods and education and services rose quickly. So many people didn’t go to the hospital, because it was too

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In Germany the Treaty of Versailles demanded reparations and the only way Germany could pay back was to print out more money, which led to hyperinflation and high unemployment. After World War I many countries were burdened with a large number of unemployed and weak economic conditions, and because of this Totalitarians

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There began to be a gradual decline in prices and the stock market ruptured. On October 24, 1929, the infamous “Black Thursday” took place, where stock holders went on a panic selling spree. Things then went from bad to worse, stock prices went down 33 percent. People stopped purchasing goods and business investments decreased after the crash. In the fall of 1930, the first of four major waves

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