Great Depression

Transcription

1 Great Depression Le$ With Nothing The era of prosperity known as the Roaring TwenAes ended suddenly on October 29, 1929, when the stock market crashed. The day would forever be known as Black Tuesday. The collapse of the financial markets, set off a series of harmful events that len millions of Americans penniless. Banks failed and families lost their savings. Without money, consumers couldn t buy food, clothing, or household goods. Without customers, stores went out of business. When businesses failed, millions of Americans lost their jobs. The cycle of despair worsened, and many families lost their homes. Eventually the federal government created programs to help put Americans back to work. Below, describe the effect of each event on the Great Depression. Name a New Deal program and how it helped? New Deal Programs Begin The Works Progress AdministraAon employed millions of people to build roads and buildings. Who promised a New Deal, and what did he mean? Roosevelt Becomes President The New Deal was a series of programs to create jobs and provide relief to the unemployed and poor. What was the stock market crash and why did it harm the country? Stock Market Crashes The crash was a huge drop in the value of stocks. This cause many banks to fail How did WWII affect unemployment? World War Two Begins Millions of men and women found jobs in the military or producing weapons in factories. What caused the Dust Bowl to happen? The Dust Bowl Drought combined with poor farming methods caused massive wind erosion and dust storms. How many Americans were unemployed and how many banks failed? The Depression Worsens At least 13 millions Americans became unemployed and nearly 10,000 banks failed.

2 Great Depression 2 Tough Times Stocks When you own stock, you own a portion of a company. A stock is often called a share. You are sharing ownership with thousands of other people who also own stock in the same company. If the company succeeds and does well, the value (price) of the share goes up. Your investment is worth more and you make money. If the company does badly, the share price goes down and you lose money. In the 1920s many investors wanted to buy more shares of stock than the could afford. So, they borrowed money. This is called buying on margin. When stock prices fell, what happened? They couldn t pay back their loans and went broke. List the three causes of the Great Depression People overspeculated on stocks using borrowed money. When stock prices fell, they could not repay the loans. The Federal Reserve (the central or main U.S. bank) failed to prevent the collapse of the banking system. High tariffs (import taxes) on foreign goods discouraged internaaonal trade.

3 Great Depression 3 Haun9ng Images The most memorable images of the Great Depression were taken by photographer Dorothea Lange. Lange documented the plight of poor and hungry families. Many had lost their homes. They were forced to travel the country looking for work, living in their cars or in tents. This is the most famous photo from the Depression. Why? Describe how the mother must feel. How does it make you feel? Her name was Florence Thompson. When the photo was taken in 1936, she was 32 years old with seven hungry children. They lived in a tent. Florence and her husband were poor migrant farm workers in California. Work was scarce as crops had been destroyed by a freeze. Her husband sold the Ares from their car to buy food for the children. Lange Atled the photo Migrant Mother.

4 Great Depression Out of Business What happened to banks and businesses? What percentage of people were unemployed? Thousands of banks and _ businesses failed. What effect did it have on Americans? Onefourth of American workers _ did not have a job. When people couldn t afford food, what happened to farmers? Millions of people were hungry _ and homeless Farmers incomes fell to low levels because _ they could not sell their crops.

5 Great Depression Out of Work 25% Unemployment During the Great Depression 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Plot the yearly unemployment numbers on the graph. Then connect the dots with lines to see how joblessness rose and fell % 8.7% 15.8% 23.5% 24.8% 21.6% 20.0% % 14.2% 18.9% 17.1% 14.5% 9.7% Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census WaiAng for Relief Checks 1937

6 Great Depression 6 Dust Bowl In the 1930s, a huge por9on of the Great Plains became known as the Dust Bowl. Massive deadly dust clouds called black blizzards swept through the region. Strong winds picked up millions of tons of earth, ruining farms, choking carle, and causing severe health problems for residents. It has been called the largest manmade ecological disaster in American history. Technology Gasoline powered farm machinery plowed millions of acres of grasslands into wheat fields, exposing the topsoil. Poor Farming Methods OverproducAon of wheat caused prices to fall. Farmers the plowed more acres to make up for their losses. Describe the three main causes of the Dust Bowl Changing Weather Drought (lack of rain) dried the exposed soil. High winds then blew it away.

7 Great Depression 7 Abandoned Farms Blowing dust eroded topsoil and made farming impossible. Thousands were forced to move away. Map of the Dust Bowl Montana North Dakota South Dakota Wyoming Nebraska Colorado Draw an outline around the Dust Bowl. It stretched from Montana and North Dakota to Texas. The Dust Bowl covered 150,000 square miles and included parts of all the named states. Draw a second outline around the hardest hit area. It included poraons of five states. Kansas New Mexico Oklahoma Texas

8 Great Depression 8 Moving Searching onfor from a the BeRerDust Life Bowl Can t Stay How many people were len homeless by the Dust Bowl, and where did many go? The Dust Bowl len more than 500,000 Americans homeless. Many packed their cars or trucks and headed west. MigraAon By 1940, how many people had len the Plains states? Where did the largest number go? By 1940, 2.5 million people had len the Plains states. 200,00 moved to California. Literature When migrants reached the West Coast, did their lives improve? What famous book tells their story? Many could not find farm jobs in California. Their hard lives were made famous by the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, wripen by John Steinbeck.

9 Great Depression 9 New Deal The New Deal was a series of government programs designed to help the naaon recover from the Great Depression. The name came from President Franklin Roosevelt s 1932 campaign promise of a new deal for the American people. Between 1932 and 1938, Congress passed, and the president approved, numerous measures. They provided Relief for the poor, Recovery for the economy, and Reform of the financial system (banks and stock market) to prevent another financial collapse. This has come to be known as the 3 Rs. Place each feature of the New Deal in its proper circle: Farm assistance programs; Rights for labor; Environmental improvement programs; Federal work programs; ReArement benefits for senior ciazens. ReArement benefits for Federal work _ senior ciazens programs Environmental improvement programs Major Features of the New Deal Increased rights _ for labor Farm assistance programs

10 Great Depression 10 Changing America In what two ways did New Deal programs dramaacally change the connecaon between government and American ciazens? Expanded the role of the federal government in people s daily lives People came to expect that the federal government would provide certain services for them. IdenAfy each New Deal program represented below. Social Security AdministraAon Works Progress AdministraAon Senior CiAzens Civilian ConservaAon Corps Jobs for the unemployed Agricultural Assistance AdministraAon Farm Assistance Environmental improvement NaAonal Labor RelaAons Act Rights for labor

11 Great Depression 11 Public Power One of the larger New Deal programs was the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA built hydroelectric dams to generate power, helping bring electricity to rural areas of America. It now operates 30 major dams and many smaller ones. The TVA also started reforestaaon projects, and it developed feralizer to aid farmers. The program changed the economy of this large region. The dam building was controversial. An esamated 72,000 people had to be relocated as their homes were in areas that would eventually be flooded by newly created lakes. Kentucky Virginia North Carolina Tennessee South Carolina Mississippi Georgia Alabama TVA dams Locate and draw the area served by the TVA on the map.