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What is the Great Depression)
The Great Depression was a period marked by a global financial crisis that appeared in the late '30s, ending with the start of World War II. -
Where and when did the Great Depression happen?
There were a lot of cities that were hit harder than others during the Great Depression. The
“service-oriented” cities were hurt less severely, and political centers (Canada, Texas, Washington, London, Berlin) had a great opportunity for expansion, also adding many new jobs. It originated in the United States and then spread throughout the world in the ’30s. It also happened across the world in the eastern world (Europe as a whole was affected) and oriental countries. -
Causes of the Great Depression
As mentioned before, the main causes of the Great Depression were: the stock market crash of 1929, banking panics and monetary contraction between 1930 and 1932, the status and standard of gold, decreased international lending and tariffs in the late 1920s, overproduction of consumer goods, bankruptcies and high levels of debt and lack of credit. -
Why did the Great Depression happen?
Due to the major fall in stock prices around September 4, 1929, added to the stock market crash on October 29 (also known as Black Tuesday), the worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15% (compared to the 2009's Recession, it's one of the biggest drawbacks in the worldwide economy since data started to be registered). In the picture (11 November 1993), we can see about 5,000 unemployed people wait outside the State Labor Bureau, waiting to get one of the 90,000 federal relief jobs. -
Countries affected bythe Great Depression
By 1928, Germany, Brazil, and the economies of Southeast Asia were depressed. By early 1929, the economies of Canada, Poland, and Argentina were also affected by the Great Depression, and the U.S. economy followed in. -
The New Deal (Part 1)
This program was launched by President Franklin D.Roosevelt in 1933 in order to help The United States to recover from the crisis.
Public. Works. The goal was to create employment and stimulate investment by large companies.
Farming subsidies. Farmers were paid in order to produce less so that the price would rise and profits would increase. -
The New Deal (Part 2)
Along with the New Deal and the following prepositions from Roosevelt between 1935 and 1938:
It improved working conditions. These included a shorter workday of 8 hours.
Restructuring of the financial system. The goal of these measures was to increase consumption and stimulate the United States economy. -
Europe Nazism and the recovery of Germany (Part 2)
Because of the ongoing negative impact of the Great Depression during 1933, the government used deflation to try to escape the crisis, but that decision caused more unemployment, the fall of Germany’s GDP, and the overall collapse of the core banking system. The fear of a communist revolution in Germany also helped the rise of nazism, a new ideology directly linked to Mussolini’s fascist ideas. Nazism is characterized by its systemic racism towards anyone but a theoretical “Arian” race. -
Europe Nazism and the recovery of Germany (Part 2)
This "Arian" race was thought to be achieved by nazi eugenics (a practice that involves the selection of people with the "best" physical features). Social Darwinism fueled this belief and states that ethnic differences come from the mix of different races in society, and those ethnicities that were other than the white western man were considered inferior and therefore should be exterminated (systemic racism and racial prejudice was covered with social Darwinism to justify the Holocaust).