The Great Depression
SocialAgencies
During the years of FDR’s presidency, federal agencies were created to help out society. These included things like; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (1933) - created to insure the deposits of approved banks against loss the even of bank failure. Federal Housing Administration (1936)- created to insure loans and mortgages and encourage residential construction. Social Security Board (1938) - Created to control and distribute federal retirement funds. These programs above still exist today. FDR’s goal was to attempt to give society hope that something, anything was being done to help. These agencies also created jobs, and generated what we know today as “alphabet soup” a series of acts and agencies that created a huge federal bureaucracy. Crash of the Stock Market The stock market was establish and everyone invested in it. The rising stock prices were known as bull market, and this convinced many citizens to invest in stocks. Investors bought on margin which allowed them to buy triple what they paid. By 1929, the stock market was running out of new customers to invest.. On October 24th, “black Thursday” the market plummeted. “Black Tuesday” or October 29th stocks lost 10 to 15 billion. By mid November the stocks dropped over 3 and over 30 billion was lost. This was a key factor in the 4 causes for the Great Depression. To the majority of society that invested in the stocks, they were heavily, negatively impacted by the crash. |
EconomicLoss of Export Sales
America suffered export sale losses by about 1/5 by 1929. This hurt not only the economy, but more specifically farmers and companies. Less foreign loans caused fewer products being purchased or exported, and sales decreased by 40%. The Hawley-Smoot tariff raised average tariff (exports) to the highest it had been in American history, and foreign countries in return raised the tariffs against us. Hunger Marches (1931) Local hunger marches began taking place on state capitols in about a dozen states, often with marchers from all over the various states demanding relief and unemployment insurance. The first national march took place on December 7, 1931 with demands of unemployment insurance, and a social insurance system to cover maternity care, illness, accidents, and old age. The most famous Hunger March took place on March 7th,1932 where marchers were killed by police. The hunger marches were an act caused by the devastating depression and demonstrate the lack of money and economic flexibility during this time. |
PoliticalHerbert Hoover
President during the Great Depression. His famous saying was “pull yourself up by your boot straps” He was a republican, and a successful engineer and former head of the food administration. He came into office after the stock market crash trying to reassure Americans. He believed in the idea of rugged individualism (where people succeed by their own efforts) and that people could help themselves. To support the economy, he organized the Hoover Dam. Although he chose to take action a bit too late, he did help out farmers with the federal farm board, as well as created the National Credit Organization to help out banks, and enacted the Federal Home Loan Bank to protect peoples homes. Bonus Army The Bonus army was mostly made up of WWI veterans who went to Washington in 1932 to claim their promised bonus for serving the country. Their requests were vetoed by Congress and scorned by Hoover. The veterans were attack by US army forces and the federal governments handling of the bonus army caused much controversy. To break up the army, army forces sprayed them with tear gas, threatened by foot soldiers, tanks and horses. This abuse was directed at the veterans as well as women and children. Public opinions of the Bonus army sided with them, and against President Hoover. He was seen at fault and lost his bid at second term because of this. I chose to place this term under political, because it was a political issue dealing with compensation to the veterans. |
How does the Great Depression lead into World War II?
The Great Depression had a huge impact on American History. Great Britian at the time had a need for war materials, and this was seen by the US as an easy way to boost our manufacturing buisness. This plan seemed probable for helping us exit the depression and the Roosevelt administration made Great Britian to agree to pay for all materials in full amount, (no exceptions, that way we could not be jipped of money) The Axis power viewed this as going against our claim to neutrality, (we did claim to be Neutral and said we would not get involved) and therefor declared war. I would not call this a period of progress, obviously the depression was fatal to the economy and the US suffered during this time. The stock market crashed, and americans faced poverty and despair.
Additional Terms
New Deal: Roosevelts policies for ending the depression, after a cartoonist used the phrase to stand for Teddy Roosevelts new program. This deal consisted of ideas to get the country and people back on their feet. One of the programs was called the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. Young men from all over the country lived in work camps and americans began finding jobs again.
Gold Standard: 1 oz of gold equaled a set number of dollars. Used to keep the value of the dollar. In order to decrease it, the Us would have to stop exchanging gold for money. Many people feared Roosevelt would abandon the gold standard inorder to fight the depression.
Gold Standard: 1 oz of gold equaled a set number of dollars. Used to keep the value of the dollar. In order to decrease it, the Us would have to stop exchanging gold for money. Many people feared Roosevelt would abandon the gold standard inorder to fight the depression.