4) BUST: The Depression Flashcards
Why was there overproduction?
American factories were mass producing consumer goods faster than they could sell them. There was a limit to to number of cars, radios, telephones and fridges people needed and would buy. Not all Americans could even afford these goods in the first place.
How many shares were sold on Black Thursday and when was it?
24th October 1929- 13 million shares were sold (five times as many as on a normal day).
How much did shareholders lose as a result of the Stock Market Crash?
$8 billion.
Why did banks go bankrupt and how many did in 1929 alone?
People who borrowed money from banks to buy shares couldn’t repay their bank loans as they lost money when they sold their shares for any price. 659 banks went bust in 1929 alone.
What effect did the Depression have on unemployment?
Around 13 million people had lost their jobs by 1932. 12000 people lost their jobs each day by 1932 and 20000 companies had closed.
What was a Hooverville and why did they exist?
Settlements made of shacks built with boxes, scrap metal and old cloth on waste ground. Around 250000 Americans stopped paying their mortgages in 1932 alone and most were evicted and had to live on the streets.
What was a breadline?
A queue of homeless people for food from soup kitchens.
What was the Dust Bowl?
A combination of drought and poor farming methods caused huge dust storms that blew away millions of acres of dry topsoil, making it impossible to farm. This made life even harder for farmers who had struggled even before the crash.
What is rugged individualism?
The idea that people can overcome problems with hard work, not government help.
What did Hoover do to try and help people during the Depression?
Reconstruction Finance Corporation lent money to businesses in trouble and made small loans to farmers. A huge road and dam building scheme created jobs. He made $300 million available so states could help their unemployed but only $30 million was accepted.
How did Hoover make things worse during the Depression?
The Hawley-Smoot tariff in 1930 taxes foreign goods which made other nations tax US imports so US exports fell sharply and even more businesses failed.
What did Roosevelt promise America if he was elected?
A New Deal including the 3 Rs- Relief (help for the old, sick, unemployed and homeless), Recovery (government schemes to provide jobs) and Reform (to make America a better place for ordinary people and to ensure another Depression couldn’t happen again).
When Roosevelt was Governor of New York, how much did he spend helping the unemployed?
$20 million of tax money.
Why did Roosevelt win the 1932 presidential election?
He was an excellent public speaker sometimes making 15 speeches a day. He had succeeded despite his disability (he had polio and had to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life) so had the right experience to help America recover. The phrase ‘New Deal’ was very popular and caught the public’s imagination.
What violence was there during the Depression?
Farmers in Iowa used guns and pitchforks to chase away government officials who tried to evict them. In 1932, 25000 ex-soldiers marched to Washington DC and asked for their war bonus to be paid early. Hoover sent the army to drive them away with guns, tanks and tear gas.
