The Great Depression

12/19/05

Cont-World

The Great Depression

The Great Depression began in October 1929, and is the worst and longest period of unemployment and low business activity in modern times. The Great depression not only affected the United States, but almost every nation worldwide. Although the depression brought about many changes not all of them were positive.

There are many things that contributed to the start of the Great Depression. One major cause of the Great Depression was the stock market crash. Since the stock market was doing so well and prices were doubling many people went out and brought shares in stocks, hoping to hit it big. Unfortunately on October 24, 1929, the stocks values dropped quickly, causing thousands of people to lose a lot of money. Another cause of the depression was the farm depression of the 1920's. During this period of time, farm products prices fell about 40 percent. Most of the framers lost so much money they couldn't afford to pay their mortgages. Banks even began to go out of business because they were located in agricultural areas.

During the depression many of the people were unemployed, and unable to support their families. The depression even decreased worldwide trade because other countries tried to raise their tariffs on imported goods. Many companies in Canada had to close because of the decrease in exports, which caused high unemployment rates there as well. Due to the lack of nutrition and health care many became very ill and died. The city streets were crowed with people who had lost their homes. Many people blamed the depression on the United States president at the time, which was President Herbert Hoover. He felt that by keeping the government out of businesses they would prosper, but it didn't help. He even put a group of people together to help reconstruct and help build back up the economy, but he was yet again unsuccessful since there wasn't enough money to go around. Since everyone felt Hoover was to blame, they elected Roosevelt as their new president in 1932. When Roosevelt was elected he came up with a way to relieve the depression, which he called the New Deal. There where three main parts to the New Deal, First they would provided relief for the needy, then they would provide jobs and encourage