Great Depression

• Hoovervilles


  Shacks made of anything citizens could find after being evicted due to high unemployment rates, located near water sources
• Parts of the United States where Herbert Hoover received most support in 1932 election

  • New England states
• Black Tuesday


  Investment companies and bankers bought a lot of stock to try to stabilize the market, but the market crashed and all the stock was sold, wiping out investors and causing prices to increase out of control
• President Roosevelt repealed the 18th amendment

  The amendment had cost billions of dollars and allowed for bootlegging and gang activity to flourish to get alcohol
• The Dust Bowl started in the Great Plains States
• Reconstruction Finance Corporation


  A corporation that had the power to borrow up to 2 million dollars to loan out to major banks, railroads, and farm mortgage associations
• Hawley-Smoot Tariff


  Highest import tax in history, passed by Hoover
• Black blizzards


  Dark clouds of topsoil picked up by the wind during the Dust Bowl, containing tons of soil
• Penny auctions


  When the bank took the farmers' land and everything and auctioned it off, but everyone agreed to bid low so they could return all the stuff bought to the farmers
• The Hoover Dam is built on the Colorado River
• Economic contraction


  Economic decline because there is a decline in goods and services, basically an economic depression

  -decline in outcome of goods and services
• How Herbert Hoover attempted to pull the US out of the depression

  Through confidence of the economy and limited government, encouraging companies to keep their prices the same
• Factors that led to the stock market crashing

  • Drop in production and employment levels
  • Lots of people in debt
  • Huge banks with money couldn't convert investments into cash easily
• The Democratic party favored more government intervention in the economy
• What happened to many people socially during the depression and how they coped

  • Workers were laid off
  • Citizens were evicted
  • Slow down in production
  • families split apart
  • Hit hard on families: they suffered starvation
  • Increase of suicide and families deserting each other
  • They coped with great depression humor
• Dust Bowl

  The disaster happened in the Great Plains states, where the dried-up soil from the droughts was blown away with severe winds, creating dust storms
• Bank Runs


  When people rushed to withdraw their money from the bank, but because nobody paid back their loans, the bank had no money, and the bank fails
• "Riding the Rails"

  When 2 million hobos would travel the country looking for work by jumping illegally on freight trains
• Bonus Army


  When World War 1 veterans marched to Washington DC, demanding early payment of the bonus promised by Congress. However, the Senate declined the proposal, and the veterans built shacks and mostly peacefully protested.
• Ripple effects that took place in America following the Stock Market Crash

  • Bank runs
  • Consumers borrowing: people loaned money and couldn't pay it back
  • Risky loans hurt the bank
  • Bank failures-- 9 million saving accounts vanished
  • Cut in production
  • Workers were laid off as production dropped
• Causes of the Great Depression

  • Uneven distribution of wealth: wealthy people saved money rather than spent it
  • Over speculation
  • Slow down in production and decrease in employment
• How people came together to support one another during the Great Depression

  • Through Penny auctions to make sure the farmers still kept their things
  • soup kitchens
  • chipping in to buy a birthday cake
• Differences between Democrats and Republicans in their beliefs to fix the economy during the 1932 election


  • Democrats: believed large-scale problems required government intervention
  • Republicans: believed that the Federal government should not be involved in the economy and fix people's problems
• overspeculation: when stocks become worth a lot more than the actual value of the company (people make risky invenstments hoping for big profit)
• How did the Great Depression impact the rest of the world?

  America invested in Germany who then payed back great britian and France who then needed to pay back America