The great depression and the American dust bowl By Amelia Cooke

The great depression The depression originated in the United States, starting with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as Black Tuesday), but quickly spread to almost every country in the world. Money changed its value each day. Profits and prices dropped. Unemployment in the United States rose to 25%, and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60%. Countries started to recover by the mid-1930s, but in many countries the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the start of World War II.

Photos of the Great Depression and crash

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The American dust bowl The dust bowl was known as the ‘dirty thirties’ which was when America and the Canadian prairie lands had severe dust storms which caused major ecological and agricultural damage. It was caused by severe drought and extensive farming without crop rotation. During the drought of the 1930s, with nothing to keep the soil in place, it dried, turned to dust, and blew away eastward and southward in large dark clouds. Most of the dust ended up blowing into the Atlantic ocean The dust storms were given names such as “Black Blizzards” and “Black Rollers” It often reduced visibility to a few feet (around a metre). The Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres centred on the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and adjacent parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas.

Photos of the American Dust Bowl

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