A Short History About The Great Depression

It was started by the 1929 stock market crisis and terminated when World War II broke out. The Great Depression was a severe economic depression that lasted from 1929 to 1941 and was brought on by an excessively optimistic, overextended stock market as well as a drought that hit the South. The American government took unprecedented direct action to help boost the economy in an effort to end the Great Depression. Despite this assistance, the Great Depression was finally ended by the increased production required for World War II. 

 

On Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the day the stock market crashed and the Great Depression was formally declared to have begun, the United States was plunged into despair after nearly ten years of optimism and prosperity. Panic erupted as stock prices fell with no prospect of a rebound. Numerous people attempted to sell their stock, but nobody was interested. The stock market, which had once seemed like the most certain method to become wealthy, quickly turned out to be the road to bankruptcy. 

 

But the stock market collapse was only the start. Many banks were forced to collapse after the stock market crashed because they had also invested significant amounts of their customers' cash in the stock market. Another fear broke out across the nation as some banks closed. People went to banks that were still open to withdraw their money out of fear that they would lose their personal savings. Additional banks had to close as a result of this significant cash outflow.

 

Clients who didn't make it to a bank in time also became bankrupt because there was no way for them to get any of their savings back once the bank had closed. 

 

Additionally impacted were businesses and industry. President Herbert Hoover urged businesses to maintain wage rates, but many of them began reducing employee hours or wages after losing a significant amount of money in the stock market collapse or bank closures. As a result, consumers started to cut back on their spending and stopped buying items like luxury products.

 

Due to the decline in consumer spending, more businesses had to reduce wages or, more severely, lay off part of their employees. Even with these cuts, several companies were unable to remain open and eventually shut down, leaving all of its employees without jobs. A major issue during the Great Depression was unemployment. In the United States, the unemployment rate increased from 3.2% to an astounding 24.9% between 1929 and 1933, which meant that one in every four Americans did not have a job. 

 

Because they could at least feed themselves, farmers were typically spared from the worst consequences of prior depressions. Unfortunately, the Great Plains were severely affected by both a drought and terrible dust storms during the Great Depression, leading to what is now known as the Dust Bowl.

 

The grass vanished as a result of years of over grazing mixed with the impacts of a drought. High winds swept up the loose earth that was only the topsoil exposed and swirled it for miles. Everything in their path was devastated by the dust storms, leaving farmers with no harvests.

 

Particularly heavily hurt were small farmers. The invention of the tractor significantly reduced the demand for labor on farms even before the dust storms. These little farmers borrowed money for seed and paid it back when their crops came in, so they were typically already in debt.

 

Small farmers were not only unable to feed themselves and their families after the dust storms destroyed their crops, but they were also unable to repay their debts. Following a bank foreclosure, the farming family would experience homelessness and unemployment. 

 

In the United States, the Great Depression left millions of people without jobs. Numerous unemployed persons hit the road in search of work after failing to locate another job in their immediate area. They had cars in a few cases, but the majority hitchhiked or "rode the rails."

 

Teenagers made up the majority of those who travelled by rail, although older men, women, and entire families were also present. In an effort to find work in one of the towns along the way, they would board freight trains and travel across the nation. Whenever there was a job opening, there would frequently be literally thousands of applicants. Those who weren't fortunate enough to land a job would reside in a shantytown outside the town called "Hoovervilles." Newspapers, cardboard, driftwood, and other materials that could be found lying around were used to construct homes in the shantytown.

 

Farmers who had lost their farms and homes typically travelled west to California because they had heard there were agricultural jobs there. Unfortunately, these families' circumstances were unstable and unpleasant, despite the fact that there was some seasonal job available. The memories of these immigrants to California were immortalized in the fictional book, "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck.

 

The U.S. economy collapsed and entered the Great Depression during Hoover's presidency. Despite his frequent calls for optimism, President Hoover was held responsible for the Great Depression by the public. In the same way that the shantytowns were given the name Hoovervilles in his honor, newspapers, pockets that were turned inside out to indicate that they were empty, and broken-down cars drawn by horses all acquired similar names. Franklin D. Roosevelt easily defeated Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election because Hoover had little prospect of winning reelection. 

 

Americans had high expectations that President Roosevelt would be able to end all of their problems. When Roosevelt first took office, he immediately shuttered all the banks and wouldn't allow them to reopen until they had steadied. After that, Roosevelt started to implement the New Deal policies.

 

Most people only knew these New Deal initiatives by their initials, which some people compared to an alphabet soup. Some of these initiatives, such as the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, were designed to support farmers. While other initiatives, like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, sought to reduce unemployment by employing people for a range of purposes.

 

The Great Depression's end at the time, and President Roosevelt was revered by many. They believed he had a genuine concern for the average person and was working hard to put an end to the Great Depression. It is unclear, however, how much Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives contributed to the Great Depression's eventual termination. By all accounts, the New Deal initiatives helped to lessen the effects of the Depression, but by the end of the 1930s, the American economy was still in dire straits. 

 

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into World War II, the US economy underwent a significant turnaround. Both people and business became crucial to the war effort once the U.S. got involved. There was an immediate demand for weapons, artillery, ships, and airplanes. Women were kept at home to operate the factories while the males were trained as soldiers. Food has to be grown for the domestic market as well as for export. The Great Depression in the United States was ultimately resolved by the U.S. joining World War II.