Recap of the 1920’s Stock Market Crash Great Depression Dust Bowl Topics: Recap of the 1920’s Stock Market Crash Great Depression Dust Bowl

World War I is over! Let’s celebrate!! Life in America is great!

Roaring 20’s! The 1920’s were great times in America! 19th Amendment Women can vote!

The Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes Louis Armstrong

Henry Ford assembly lines Model T He made the automobile affordable for most people! assembly lines Model T

Charles Lindbergh Lindbergh changed aviation history by flying solo across the Atlantic Ocean! He proved it could be done!

Times are good! Let’s go to the ballpark and watch Babe hit a homer!

1920’s No, not in cars....in homes! The radio became a main form of entertainment. No, not in cars....in homes!

Dant, Dant, Dant, Daaaaaa....... Yes, WWI was over. Yes, it was time to celebrate. But, the American economy was in TROUBLE!

1929

Stock Market Crash!

Stocks are shares of ownership in a company. What is a stock? Stocks are shares of ownership in a company. What do you know about stocks and their relationship to companies such as the ones below?

1929 Following World War I. and selling stocks for high amounts of money. Following WWI, people were buying

People who were rich one day, were poor the next.

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 triggered the GREAT DEPRESSION. Banks and businesses were failing. People could not find jobs. This was a dismal time in America’s history.

Thousands of people lined up at soup kitchens run by charities. A bowl of hot soup and a piece of bread might be the only meal they would get in an entire day. Hungry and homeless people roamed the city streets.

Farmers had a very difficult time during the Depression years, especially farmers in the Midwest states.

Before WWI, farmers, in the Great Plains, had plowed up millions of acres of grassland so they could plant wheat.

Before WWI, farmers, in the Great Plains, had plowed up millions of acres of grassland so they could plant wheat.

But, there was a huge drought in the Great Plains But, there was a huge drought in the Great Plains. This caused soil erosion (Put on your science caps!). The soil would blow all over the place and form huge clouds of dust!

The dust covered everything! It covered fences, houses, barns, roads, and cars!

This area of the country became known as the “Dust Bowl.”

Poor Farmers packed up everything they had and drove west Poor Farmers packed up everything they had and drove west. They hoped to find work in the farmlands of California.

Something had to be done to help Americans. They were in the worst financial circumstances in history! What do you think could solve this problem?

For Further Discussion - Extra information: The stock market was only one cause of the Great Depression, however. Unequal income distribution was another problem. While businesses showed great profits during the 1920s, workers got only a small portion of this wealth in their low wages. People who had small incomes therefore bought merchandise on credit. Advertisers pushed them to do so with the slogan "Buy now, pay later." Many consumers accumulated so much debt that they could no longer purchase products, leading to a slowing of manufacturing because there was a backlog of merchandise. During the 1920s American farmers in the Midwest had been suffering from drought conditions. Others had geared up for high production, but after the end of World War I (1914–18) they found that the international market was overstocked and prices fell so low that they could not make a profit on their crops. The banking industry also made mistakes in too freely lending money, especially to foreign countries trying to rebuild after the war. These countries had trouble repaying their debts. To make matters worse, the United States (and other industrialized countries) charged high import taxes on goods that other countries offered for sale. These taxes prevented countries from selling the goods they needed to earn the money to repay loans from U.S. banks.

The End