The great depression was one of the worst moments for American history. At the height it made 25% of American citizens jobless in 1933. Many people couldn’t provide for their family. The great depression was caused by consumerism and over speculation on the Stock Market in the 1920s as well as a farming crisis that was quietly growing. It was made known globally soon after the American stock market crash of October, 1929.
Reasons for the crash include over speculating; meaning they took a risk in investing in a stock that was priced over its actual value. Once everyone started seeing that the market was starting to fail, America started to go into a panic. Everyone sold their stocks which affected it even more. People started getting their money out of the banks in worry thinking it would be gone. That’s when banks started to close.
Everything was falling apart until president Roosevelt came along with his plan called “The New Deal” after his landslide election victory in 1932. It didn’t exactly fix everything from the start but soon enough jobs started coming into play within the first hundred days because so many new laws like the National Recovery Act were passed and organizations like the Workers Progress Administration were made. The effects of the Great Depression were big and long lasting. The 1930s saw an increase in socialism in major industrial countries. Socialism means the increase in government ownership and power over the economy. This came in different ways. In America it was FDR’s New Deal, in Italy it was the Fascist dictatorship of Mussolini, in Germany it was the rise of Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship and in Russia the authority of Communist dictator Stalin increased. These nationalistic differences of governments and their economies would lead to our second World War in 1939.
Many say that the salvation for the American great depression came on December, 7, 1941. This is when Japan decided to bomb the US Navy fleet stationed in the American territory of Hawaii known as “Pearl Harbor”. Roosevelt called it the day of infamy, Congress declared war on Japan the very next day. America saw Roosevelt as the one to help the country with his leadership. They were used to hearing him every week on the radio in his “fireside chats” with the American people. He was the first president to be live on radio in America.
For more information on the Great Depression CLICK HERE
