history DEPRESSION

• What date was the Wall Street Crash?

  October 1929
• Main causes of the Great Depression were...

  Obsolete methods, lack of new markets, competition from abroad, Wall Street Crash
• Shipbuilding in 1930 compared to 1933?

  1.4 million tonnes versus 133,000 tonnes
• Traditional industries in Britain?

  Coal, iron and steel, textiles and shipbuilding.
• How much did exports fall by between 1929 and 1931?

  50%
• What had unemployment reached in the middle of 1930? What did it continue rising to?


  2 million and rose to over 3 million in 1932
• Where in South Wales was particularly hard-hit? What % of unemployment?

  Rhondda Valleys, 40%
• What were the worst hit areas of the Depression and why?

  South Wales, Clydeside, north east England (Jarrow) as they were home to Britain's traditional industries
• Which areas in Wales weren't too badly affected?

  Swansea 'Uplands' and Roath and Cyncoed in Cardiff
• What were areas that were not affected by the Depression and why?

  Coventry and Oxford due to 'new industries' (car manufacturing, chemical industry)
• When was the 'Dole' introduced?

  In 1920 the government introduced the Unemployment Insurance Act.
• When was the dole cut and by how much?

  1931, by 10%
• When on uncovenanted benefit in 1931, what did people have to go through? Who carried it out?


  The means test, carried out by PAC officers (Public Assistance Committees)
• What was the max payment from the means test?

  £1.46 for a family (£1.80 in 1936)- well below the average wage of £3.
• Why did people hate the means test? (main reasons)

  Violation of privacy. Relatives forced to live elsewhere. More about government wanting to save money. Dole could be stopped if possessions were valuable. Humiliation. Inconsistency (County Durham refused to carry it out at all)
• When did Hunger Marches begin?


  August 1931
• When was the Jarrow March?

  October 1936
• What was the unemployment figure in Jarrow and why?

  80% as Palmers Shipyard closed for 40 years. Unemployment went from approx 3200 to 7000 in 3 years
• How much higher were death rates in Jarrow?

  Infant mortality was twice as high.
• Who was the Prime Minister who ignored the Jarrow March?

  Stanley Baldwin
• How many men marched and who were they led by? How far did they cover in how many stages?

  200 men led by MP Ellen Wilkinson. 450km covered in 22 stages.
• Positives and negatives of the Jarrow march were....

  Public attention/ men returned to Jarrow as heroes/ petition presented to House of Commons. BUT situation in Jarrow didn't change/ Baldwin ignored the marchers and didn't give in to external pressure
• The first of two main hunger marches from the Rhondda valleys was in....

  October 1932. 375 marchers from Rhondda valleys combined with others from Britain to stop means test, but was unsuccessful.
• The second of 2 main hunger marches in Wales happened in...

  October 1936. 504 marched from South Wales due to mining conditions but again, this achieved little.
• How many people in 1936 were estimated to be undernourished?

  4.5 million, this figure including 1/5 of all children.
• What did "self help" include?

  Neighbours coming together for emergencies (childbirth, intrusion from rent collectors), women operating credit mechanisms for pawning, buying clothes etc.
• Who ran a scheme to help unemployed workers from Wales find work? Where did they move?

  Ministry of Labour. They moved to places like Morris Motor Car Company in Oxford, other parts of Britain and even USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
• How many people left Wales between 1921 and 1938?

  440,000
• The 4 main forms of escapism were...

  Radio, cinema, sport and television
• Radios cost between ___ and ____ . A radio license was ___. By 1939 ___% of the population owned one and there were ___ million registered radios.


  £1-£3 / 15s / 75% / 9 million
• In 1934, Wales had over —— cinemas with over —- in Cardiff alone. By 1936 there were ——- cinema admissions per year. Films were shown such as ——


  320/ 20/ 1 billion/ How Green Was My Valley
• —-, —— and —- were all popular. —- was a boxing hero from the Rhondda. One football game saw a crowd of over —— . Halifax Town FC regularly had attendance of over —-.


  Rugby, football and boxing / Tommy Farr/ 80,000/ 30,000
• Televisions were highly expensive and only people from —- and —— of Britain could afford them.

  south and southeast
• Growing Light industry was where areas such as ——— endured increasing prosperity and a good standard of living.

  Southeast of England and the Midlands employed in 'new industries' like electricity and motor industries
• When and what did the Special Areas Act do?

  1934- offered grants of 2 million to companies that would move to special areas hit by unemployment.
• How much was spent on Special Areas act by 1938?


  8.4 million
• Why was the Special Areas Act seen as limited in success?

  Only 121 new firms had been set up creating nearly 15000 jobs
• The Treforest Industrial Estate in 1937 created how many jobs?


  18,000. It provided an alternative employment to struggling coal and steel industries
• What was the impact of the Depression on women in depressed areas?

  Many went without food or medical insurance

  Death rate of women aged 15-35 was twice as high in some areas of high unemployment

  many women were doing domestic service

  women took part in protest marches
• Because the means test was so unpopular who did it force to resign?

  Prime minister Ramsey Macdonald