The Wall Street Crash

• What was the date of the Wall Street Crash?

  29th of October , 1929
• Why had American business boomed in the early 1920s?

  Demand for a wide range of goods was rising
• Why were businesses producing more than they could sell in the early 1920's?

  Half the population were too poor to afford their goods - so prices and wages began to fall
• Why had people began to but more and more shares in US businesses?

  They believed these shares would become more valuable as more products were being made to sell - They thought they could sell their shares for more than they had payed for them
• By the end of September 1929 , people realised that the price of shares had become too high compared to the value of companies
• What was the name of the main stock exchange in America, where shares were bought and sold?

  Wall Street in New York
• The value of shares sold on Wall Street increased by what percentage between 1925 and 1929 ?

  120 %
• What happened when the price of shares began to fall in September 1929?

  People tried to sell their shares before they became less than what they paid for them
• What was the date of Black Thursday?

  Thursday 24 th of October 1929 (Before this day people began to sell their shares in a panic)
• What happened on Black Thursday?


  13 million shares were sold in one day due to panic. Share prices fell so quickly that their value dropped to almost nothing
• What did banks do to try and increase the prices of shares?

  They brought millions of shares . However many more millions of shares continued to be sold each day
• What was the Wall Street Crash or what is it referred to as?

  The panic selling of shares that led to the sudden fall in share prices
• What was the immediate impact that the Wall Street Crash had on banks?

  Many banks went bankrupt as they ran out of money - an example of this was the New York City bank which closed in December 1930 leading to 400000 customers losing their savings
• Why did banks run out of money?

  They lent money to people buy shares that were now worthless. They bought shares to make a profit but spent all their of customer's money to do so. And they brought shares to keep their prices up during the crash even though prices kept falling
• Some banks that still had cash in them and may have survived went bankrupt as customers rushed to withdraw their money before the bank collapsed
• By 1933 , around 5000 banks had closed
• Before the crash there were 1.2 million unemployed people. How many were there by 1932?

  12 million people
• Why were so many people unemployed after the crash?

  Many businesses shut down - some could not afford to pay back the loans they borrowed. Others spent less and less and demand for goods were falling
• Where did most of the people who lost their jobs work in?

  The Older Industries - such as coal mining , textiles and steel production. However by 1929 other industries, such as banking , domestic services and teaching were also affected.
• What groups of people was the crash particularly bad for due to discrimination?

  Unskilled workers, African Americans and women - they were most likely to lose their jobs first
• A vicious cycle begun - fewer goods were sold , businesses shut down and so unemployed workers had no money to spend - This led to the Great Depression