’s

The 1920’s and 30’s For the most part the 1920’s were a time of vast prosperity in most of Europe and North America The 1920’s saw many changes to the way people lived The Prohibition movement led to the ban of alcohol in the United States

From Americans turned to bootleggers like Al Capone to get their alcohol Capone and other gangsters ruled many of the major American cities

American Economy The 1920’s saw a massive shift in the economy of the United States Henry Ford introduced the assembly line and the Model T was the first mass produced automobile

The assembly line helped Ford and other companies like Firestone, General Motors and Oldsmobile become massively successful

The US economy was thriving, the automobile age was ushered in, people began to use credit to purchase goods

German Economy In Germany the economy was not faring so well The harsh conditions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles left Germany crippled Inflation soared as the country struggled to repay reparations to France The cost of bread and other house hold goods sky rocketed

The Stock Market Crash The prosperity of the American Economy came to a crashing to a halt on October 29 th of 1929 The New York Stock Exchange lost over half of its value in one day It crashed due to two main reasons: 1.Over Speculation- Too many people were playing the stocks, too much was being bought and sold too quickly

2. Buying on Margin- Investors were able to buy stocks only putting down 10% of the cost They would then turn around and sell the stock for a quick profit

Great Depression The Stock Market Crash did not solely cause the Great Depression but it did signal the start of this era. The causes were; 1.Overproduction- The industrial capacity had exceeded the ability of the consumer to buy goods

2. The Stock Market over speculation limited available money 3. Protectionism- The US raised tariffs to protect their industries, other countries had no choice but to follow

4. International Debt from the First World War The allies had borrowed heavily to finance the war effort and needed to sell their products to U.S. markets to pay the money back

5. Uneven Distribution of Wealth 8% of the population of the United States controlled 45% of the countries wealth While 60% of the countries population received only 2.5% of the countries income This imbalance meant that many families were living near the poverty line They were affected most by the Depression

Consequences of the Great Depression The economy of the United States was devastated which impacted economies all over the world There were several main consequences of the Depression; 1.Unemployment It ran at about 25% in most industrialized countries There were no safety nets in place such as E.I or welfare

People had to rely on charity to get by and often that was not enough Soup lineups became common place

2. Banking Failures As businesses and farms went bankrupt so to went the banks This hurt those who lost their life savings It also destroyed consumer confidence

3.Changing Role of Government The Government took a hands off approach known as Laissez-Faire Economics They did not get involved feeling that it was the responsibility of the citizen to help themselves In the early 1930’s they were faced with little choice to get involved in the economy

Herbert Hoover Hoover was American President from Hoover was a wealthy mining engineer and had little apathy for those who were suffering during the depression

He didn’t want to endanger the American way of life which was based on Free Enterprise He used catchy slogans such as a “car in every garage” to try and get the economy going This failed miserably and by early 1930 the number of unemployed in the United States was around 20 million and continuing to grow

The Homeless and unemployed lived in communities of shacks called “Hoovervilles”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his Democrats were swept into power in 1932 He was to dominate American politics for the next thirteen years and is seen as one of the greatest presidents in history Roosevelt tried a different path to get the United States out of the Depression

During the election campaign Roosevelt promised improvement in his first 100 days He wanted to tackle all immediate problems

The New Deal Roosevelt introduced his New Deal as a way to deal with many of the problems in America The New Deal was an attempt to jumpstart the economy of the United States He told the people of these programs through his Fireside Chats He was the first President to use the media as a tool

Part of the program was the Alphabet Agencies they included: 1.Civilian Conservation Corps CCC Created work planting trees, employed 2.5 million people over the course of the program 2.Works Progress Administration WPA Financed public Works projects

3.National Recovery Administration NRA Reformed labour conditions 4.Tennessee Valley Authority Massive public works project to build seven hydro electrical dams along the Tennessee River 5.Agricultural Adjustment Administration AAA Created subsidies for farmers

Roosevelt received some resistance from the Supreme Court He threatened to replace all of them and they caved in He created the Social Security Act in 1935 with the Second New Deal Roosevelt's reforms helped but the U.S. didn’t come out of the depression until the start of the second world war