The Great Depression PDF

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The Great Depression 3.1.17 IDs 1. Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act 2. Bonus Army March 3. Hoovervilles Major Questions 1. What caused the Great Depression? 2. What were the social ramifications of the depression? 3. What was Herbert Hoover’s interpretation of federal power, and how did it drive his response to the economic downturn? Why does the economy collapse? 1. Stock market crashes on 29 October 1929, “Black Tuesday” 2. Economy went through boom-bust cycles that are taken for granted 3. Large divisions of wealth leads to overproduction 4. Lots of speculation in the stock market 5. Housing bubble 6. Proliferation of credit 7. Struggling farmers 8. Unregulated banks Consequences of the Great Depression ● Doesn’t reach its apex until 1923-33 when 25-30% (on average) of Americans are out of work; combined incomes of workers falls 40% ● Urban workers hit earliest and hardest ● Farmers already suffering ● Working women are first to get kicked out of the workforce ● African Americans lose jobs before white workers ● Industrial production falls between ⅓ and ⅔ ● By 1932, thousands of banks have failed ● Riots are common ● Environmental disasters wrack farming country: the dust bowl and boll weevil ● Social impact ○ Declining birth rates ○ Increased abortions ○ Declining marriage ○ Increased abandonment ○ Rise in “hobos” and wandering children International Impact ● Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act (1930) stymies international trade ○ US exports and imports to Europe fall 70% by 1932 ● 30 million unemployed worldwide ● Austria’s largest bank collapses 1931, brings down the rest of Europe ● Harms US due to post-WWI cyclical debt between US- Great Britain and France-

Germany Hoover’s Failed Response ● Believes that voluntary and private organizations should help the poor and unemployed ● Hoover admin committed to maintaining gold supply to prevent inflation ● In 1931, Hoover asks businesses not to lay off workers ● Most cities, states lack any social safety net and local charities are over taxed ● Hoover creates Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932) to pump $2 billion into the country; too late ● Deports large numbers of Mexican migrants and Mexican-Americans to help farmers National backlash ● Hoover blamed for the worsening situation; shanty towns called “Hoovervilles” and newspapers called “Hoover blankets” ● Farmers are rioting or burning their crops rather than sell for so little ● Bonus March (June 1932) discredits Hoover further ○ Gathering of WWI veterans and families in D.C. ○ Want their “bonus”/pension from the war early ○ 40,000 camp out in D.C. near the White House ○ July 28, Hoover uses military to disperse the protesters Election of 1932 ● Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D); Governor of NY runs against Hoover (R) ● FDR offers a “new deal for the American people” ○ Calls the Depression a national crisis, one that the government needs to solve...