GLOBAL GREAT DEPRESSION

• Why did the Great Depression spread from the United States to so many other parts of the world so quickly?

  • european markets were closely connected the american markets bc after WWI, europe was trying to recover from the war costs. so they depended on us financing
  • additional, majority of the world lived under some european colonialism. and european global empires linked multiple economies in Africa, Asia, and the middle-east. if europe depended on americas, and colonies dependend on europe, and there was no money, it woudlnt take long for a domino effevt to happen
• 1. How did governments react to the crisis?

  • governments chose to put tarrifs in place (tax for foreign goods)
• 1. Why was the crisis so devastating for Latin America and for European colonies in Africa and Asia? 

  • the sudden decline in demand for cash crops and other exports led to economic turmoil, exacerbated by tariffs and colonial exploitation, resulting in widespread unemployment and financial hardship
• 1. In what ways did some states grow more powerful during the crisis?

  • During the Great Depression, some states grew more powerful by adopting state-controlled economies, like the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. They implemented the Five-Year Plan to control production and distribution, which strengthened their economies despite human costs. This led some Western countries to consider similar state intervention
• 1. What ended the Great Depression?

  • WWII
• 1. To what extent does the Great Depression explain how different governments responded to economic crisis after 1900?

  • It prompted many to reconsider the role of government intervention in the economy, leading to the adoption of policies aimed at regulating and stabilizing markets to prevent similar collapses in the future
• Can you draw any comparison between more recent economic crises and the crisis in the 1930s

  Comparisons between more recent economic crises, such as the 2008 financial crisis, and the Great Depression of the 1930s reveal similarities and differences
• Similarities between recent crises and the Great Depression

  • Widespread economic downturns characterized by financial instability, bank failures, and high unemployment rates
  • Significant government intervention aimed at stabilizing markets and restoring economic confidence
• Differences between recent crises and the Great Depression

  • The Great Depression was triggered by a combination of factors including stock market crashes, agricultural overproduction, and international trade disruptions
  • The 2008 financial crisis was primarily fueled by the collapse of the housing market and risky financial practices in the banking sector
  • The global economic context surrounding each crisis varied, with the Great Depression occurring during a period of heightened nationalism and protectionism, whereas the 2008 crisis unfolded in an era of increased globalization and interconnected financial markets
• The Great Depression

  A collapse of international networks and global economic systems
• Collapse of international networks and global economic systems during the Great Depression

  Reshaped social interactions and organization in several ways
• Ways the collapse reshaped social interactions and organization

  • Increased unemployment
  • Increased poverty
  • Increased social unrest
  • Rise in nationalist and protectionist sentiments
• The crisis


  Prompted governments to reassess their roles in providing social welfare and regulating economic activity
• Governments reassessing their roles

  Led to the expansion of social safety nets and the implementation of new economic policies aimed at stabilizing economies and preventing future crises
• • b4 the market stock crash, the top 1 percent of Americans owned more than half of their country's wealth
• • b4 the stock crash, many of the remaining 99 percent went into debt during the 1920s to support their consumer lifestyles and open businesses
• • b4 the stock-crash, wealthy financiers on Wall Street took on risky debts and made risky investments
• • a lot of ppl panicked when the stock-crashed happened… they took money out of the banks. and since the banks had no money, the crisis got worse
• • the first year of the global depression, global production reduced
  • american manufacturing declined 36%
  • international trade fell 30%
  • wheat prices fell 40%
  • rice fell 50%
  • the price of cash crops fell 40%
• • as production and trade declined, factories shut down and this meant that many workers/people wee unemployed
• • Disillusionment in European colonies in Africa and Asia during the Great Depression stemmed from the devastating effects on their economies
• • Cash crops like rubber, sugar, and coffee, primarily grown in these colonies for export, suddenly lost demand as consumers in the United States and Europe cut back on non-essential purchases
• • The decline in demand for products like cars and luxury items had a ripple effect, causing economic turmoil in these colonies
• • Tariffs imposed by colonial governments and efforts to extract as much value as possible from these colonies further exacerbated their economic struggles
• • Despite these challenges, colonized people resisted through organized labor strikes, tax revolts, and innovative methods such as starting local businesses and transitioning cash crops into food crops for local consumption
• • Some individuals even adopted semi-nomadic lifestyles to avoid taxes and escape economic hardship
• • The Great Depression led to a reevaluation of government's role in production and distribution, particularly in the context of industrial free-trade capitalism
• • Unlike many capitalist economies, the Soviet Union, founded on communist principles, did not suffer economic collapse during the Great Depression
• • Joseph Stalin seized the opportunity to implement a Five Year Plan in 1928, which involved collectivizing land and rapidly industrializing the Soviet economy
  • The implementation of these plans came at a high human cost, with around 20 million people starving or being killed in purges aimed at consolidating state control
• • Despite the human toll, the Soviet economy appeared stronger, prompting Western countries to reconsider the extent of state control in their own economies
• • roosevelts “New Deal” from the 1930s gave more security to US citizens
• • Germany, Japan, and Italy took state control to the extreme with militant authoritarianism and fascism
• • Germany and Japan pulled their countries out of economic stagnation by increasing military production and using their new military might to aggressively seize new land and resources
• • The U.S. economy, where the depression was most pronounced, only recovered when it started building and selling huge numbers of expensive tanks, planes, and ships
  • One way to fix unemployment was to hire people to make guns and shoot other people with them
• • Great Depression prepared parts of the  world for the waves of decolonization that followed the war
• • Colonized people in Africa and Asia were hit hard by the depression. After the war, they looked around at a global capitalist-imperialist system that produced economic collapse and two world wars. And they asked themselves: "why do we let them rule us?"