The Great Depression The Years between the Wars – Part One Teacher’s Edition

Today’s Main Idea: In the late 1920’s an economic depression started in the US and quickly spread around the globe, causing great hardship and creating ideal conditions for unrest.

It started here at home… The economy boomed in the post war years, but it was built largely on credit ◦ Eventually Americans would exceed their credit limits, meaning they had to stop buying ◦ This would attribute to the stop in economic growth Consumer goods were becoming increasingly popular – cars, vacuums, refrigerators, radios, etc. The stock market crashed on 29 October 1929

The Great Depression Begins… Great Depression – a severe worldwide depression that followed the collapse of the US stock market; prices and wages fell, business activity slowed and unemployment grew In 1933 ¼ of all workers were unemployed Roosevelt combated the depression with the New Deal ◦ FDR developed an economic recovery plan by creating public projects to employ millions of Americans

The Depression Spreads… European countries were experiencing economic hardship before the depression began ◦ The Allied Powers were in debt to America ◦ The German economy was devastated by the war reparations they were forced to pay by the treaty of Versailles The Smoot Hawley Tariff was supposed to protect the American economy but only worsened the global depression ◦ It made global trade almost cease to exist

Germany and the Depression: Germany was forced to pay the allies over 130 billion marks because of the Treaty of Versailles Germany’s economy had already been destroyed by the war, this made the situation worse To pay the war reparations Germany just printed more money, this lead to massive inflation

The Rest of Europe and the Depression: High unemployment led to many riots in the streets Great Britain was hit the hardest by the global depression – it was impossible to get loans and in some places unemployment levels reached 75%

And around the world… Japanese industrialization was only slowed during the Great Depression Since the Soviet Union had removed itself from external trade it was affected little by the Great Depression The Roosevelt administration fervently fought the depression in the USA

Great Depression Art Links: Happy Days are Here Again: KEa8Y KEa8Y 22/ c/1929- Happy_Days_Are_Here_Again.html 22/ c/1929- Happy_Days_Are_Here_Again.html

Whistle While You Work: MBdNKw MBdNKw 14/ c/1937-Whistle_While_You_Work.html 14/ c/1937-Whistle_While_You_Work.html

Brother Can You Spare a Dime: U__Ijwhttp://web.archive.org/web/ / music/1932- Brother_Can_You_Spare_a_Dime.html

Propaganda Piece #1 – for_the_arts/images/work_pays_america/cc c_work_play_health.html Propaganda Piece #2 – for_the_arts/images/work_pays_america/ye ars_of_dust.html