Chapter 4 Flashcards
1
Q
what was the unemployment rate in 1929
A
4.2 %
2
Q
what is buying “on margin”
A
buying shares with only a 10% down payment
3
Q
how did the value of stock decline dramatically
A
some cautious investers started selling their stocks in order to cash in on high profits other investors rushed to follow their lead
4
Q
what day did the NYE collapse? followed by which stock markets?
A
oct. 29 1929,
montreal and toronto stock exchange
5
Q
depression
A
a period of severe economic and social harship, massive unemployment and terrible suffering
6
Q
what contributed to the severity of the depression
A
the collapse of the stock exchange
7
Q
what was one sign that the north american economy was in danger in 1927
- what was a issue happening in multiple industry sectors
what did it lead to?
A
when the price of wheat on the world market began to fall
- more wheat being produced than sold
- as sales decreased farmers incomes dropped
- same issue of overproduction was happening in many dif industry sectors
- lead to layoffs in factories = less income for workers
8
Q
what did the US imposed on foreign goods entering the US?
A
tariffs to protect the US domestic market by making foreign goods more expensive
- caused a slowndown in world trade opportuniteis
9
Q
what was another factor relation to the wars that contributed to the depression
A
germany’s inability to meet its financial reperations
- owed france and britain a lot for war damages and debts
10
Q
what majour weakness did the depression illustrate in Canada’s econmy?
A
our dependancy on the export of primary resources
11
Q
pogey
A
goverment relief payments given to those with no alternative source of income
12
Q
what did the jobless, homeless men do during the day?
A
they drifted from one place to another looking for work
they travelled across the country by hopping fright trains
13
Q
by the winter of 1933 what % of canada’s workplace was unemployed
A
more than 1/4
14
Q
Drought on the praries
A
- collapse of wheat market = families struggling to survive
- hit by a dusastrous drought that lasted 8yrs
- constant dust storms
- then came a plauge of grasshoppers that got EVERYWHERE
- in 1935 fed gov passed the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Act which helped farmers build reservoirs and irrigation systems
- drought and poverty had forced many families to leave their farms and move
15
Q
The disadvantaged - Women
A
- few jobs other than domestic work (paid only a few dollars a week)
- ## some people believed that working woman actually contributed to the depression
16
Q
the disadvantaged - aboriginals
A
- families on relief only got $5/ month
- expected to live off the land (coulnd’t actually because of poor reserve conditions)
17
Q
the disadvantaged - jews
A
- immigrants were viewed with hostility when they competed for scarce jobs
- anti-semitism
- may professiosns were closed to them; employers posted signs forbidding them to apply
- many clubs forbid jewish membership
- almost 10, 000 were deported in the first half of the depression
18
Q
responding to the depression
A
- King was unprepared to deal with a crisis the scale of the depression
- believed the situtaion was temp. and in time economy would recover
- King told desperate Canadians it was the responsibilty of provincial and municipal gov
- depression had bancrupted municpalites
- king woulnd’t help the provincial gov. and his attitude lost him the election of 1930 (Bennett won)
19
Q
Bennett & His response
A
- new PM (Conservative)
- not any more in favour of gov relief than King
- gave the provinces 20 million for work-creation programs (dindt end up helping economy)
- brought in more tarriffs, did more bad than good
- created work camps for unemployed single men
20
Q
Working for 20 cents a day - work camps
A
- work camps located deep in woods (men isolated
- projects included things such as building roads, clearing land, digging drainage ditches
- paid 20 cents a day plus room and board
- food was terrible, beds often had bugs
21
Q
on-to-Ottawa Trek (9)
A
in 1935 over 1000 men left the camps in the interior of BC in protest of the camp conditions
- they congregated in Vancouver
- Under the leadership of their union (The Relief Camp Workers) the men decided to take their complaints to Ottawa
- crowding in and on top of frieght cars they rode through the Prairies (getting more supporters)
- when the reacher Regina, the RCMP confined them in a local stadium allowing only allowing the learders to get Ottawa
- when the leaders got to Ottawa they thought they would be heard but PM Bennett attacked them as radicals and troublemakers
- back in Regina RCMP were orders to clear all the trekkers from the statium, trekkers resisted
- they battled the RCMP and local police for 2 hours
- results of battle: trekkers: 1 killed, many injured, over 100 arrested
22
Q
trouble in Vancouver
A
- one of the last protests by the uneployed happened in Vancouver
- fed gov closed relief camps (1937)
- provincial gov reduced relief payments
- men were destitute, in proteset of lack of gov support men would conduct “sit-ins” at various buildingss until gov would respond to complaints
- giant sit in @ art gallery, most left peacfully, some refused to leave - evicted w/ tear gas
- next few days there were battles between police and protesters/sit-downers
23
Q
politics of protest - new party (CCF)
A
CCF (cooperative commonwealth federation) founded in 1932 in the west
- appealed to a wide variety of canadians ex. farmers, labourers, socialists, intellectuals,
- leader: Woodsworth
- socialist party
- supported public ownership of key industries, social programs to assist people in need of $: ederly & unemployed, sick
- didnt win many seats in the 30’s
24
Q
politics of protests - Social Credit Party
A
- led by Aberhart
- won a landslide victory in the 1935 ALBERTA election
- party based on the belief that capitalism is a wasteful economic system
- thought that banks should release $ into the econmy so people could spend it
- promised each citizen a “basic dividend” of $25 /month to buy necessities.
- Fed gov challenged prov. gov right to issue its own currency
25
provincial solutions
| Ontario, Quebec, BC
Ontario: Hepburn (conservative)
- didnt do much for the unemployed
- won support by rallying against big businiess
Quebec: Duplissis (Former conservative, Nationale)
-promised reform (didnt deliver)
- blamed social & economic prob on english minorty
BC: Dufferin (Liberal)
- Little New Deal (based on the New Deal in the US
- introduced reforms to shoren the wok day, increase min wage, increase relief payments
- introduced programs that were short lived, becasue they were considered fed domain
26
Change in Goverment
- Canadians fed up with Bennett's inability to deal
- 1935 fed election King retourned to power
- his stance on gov intervention hadnt changed
- National Unenployment Commission found that unenployment was a nation pro and they suggested fed gov spend millions to create jobs
- King spent a fraction of suggested amount
27
Federal - Provincial relations
- King commissioned a study to look at fed - prov relations
- disagreement on which gov had right to collect tax $ and which should pay for social and employment assistance
- comission reccomened that the fed gov have more control of taxation and then give the poorer provinces grants or equalization payments (so that each province could offer the same level of services)
- commission also said that fed gov should bear the responsibility of unemployment insurance and other social benifits ex. pensions
- wealther provinces didnt like the iead of equalization payments
- commissions' recommendations would mean a loss of provincial powers
- by the time the commission had made report, economy was turning around - result: the reccomdations were pushed aside or adoptated later
28
entertainment / distractions from despair
- entertainment changed little through the depres
- movies, mags, radio stayed popular
- 1936 in effort to win over candian radio listeners CBC was formed
- Dionne quintuplets born in Ontario, parents didnt have enough $ to take care, kids taken in my the ontario gov, public could come and watch them, hollywood fictionalized their story, didnt see much of the money suposedly set aside for them frm gov
- Grey Owl, an apache naturalist, canadian aboriginal, devoted part of his life to prserving north canadian forestes and the beaver, writings and speeches promoting conservation made him famous, actually a english man poser dude
29
the rise of dictatorships
- soviet union
- italy
- economies from many european countires never recoverd from WW1
- unemployment was high, food was scarce,
- everyone had different beliefs on how these problems should be solved ex. communism, public ownership, military gov
- the result was several leaders who once in power became dictators who suprresed all forms of oppositition
-SOVIET UNION - Stalin took over as leader of communist party
- stalin was the "man of steel", ruthless, agriculture and economic policies caused the death of millions
- Soviet union became a totalitarian state
ITALY - Mussolini came to power
- created a fascist gov
- facscists gov popped up in many contries
- most powerful fascist party was the Natzi party under Hitler
30
fascist goverment
fascist goverments are opposed to democracy and are edxtremely nationalistic and rely on military and police power to maintain absolute control`
31
Germany after the war
- had grown increasingly unhappy with the terms of the treaty of versailles
- bitterely resented the "guilt clause" that required it to make reperations for the war
- economy had been ruined by the war, gov printed more and more money to make reparations, money worth less and less (german money declined in value) while goods prices soared
- to control the inflation, US,france & Britain agreed to give them better terms for reperation
- economy modestly improved but was hit hard by the world stock market collapse
32
Hitler comes to power
- had been gathering support by critizing the weak German gov and humilitating terms of the treaty
- depression provided the conditions for his rise to power
- him and Natzi party claimed they had solutions to bring Germany out of depression
- in 1933 his party had won control of German gov and he became chancellor of germany
- defied the terms of the treaty by stopping payments
- started masive expansion of armed forces, subsidized farmers to help rbuild farms, poured $ into public projects
- unemployment went down, economy started to improve
- Natzi's abolished all other political parties
- Natzi's extremely racist, persecuted non-aryans
33
what does NATZI stand for
national socialsist party
34
persecution by the natzis
who
what/how
- Non-aryans including Jews, Roma (gypsies), slavs, gays
- couldn't teach, attend school or uni
- hold gov office, practising professions, writing books
- encouraged mobs to assault members of these groups and destroy their property
- Natzi mobs attacked jewish busniess - Crystal night
- concentration caps to imprison and isolate non-aryans
35
on the road to war
1931 - japan invaded a chinese province
- chinese gov appealed to leauge of nations to take action against japan
- leauge: condemmed japan's actions, tried to negotiate, japan left the leauge
1935 - italy attacked Abyssinia (ethiopia)
- ethipians fought back hard and won support around the world
- the leauge immediately voted to impose trade sanctions against Italy (except for oil)
- france and britain were relecuctant to punish italy, wanted their support in case of a new war with germany
36
germany on the offensive
1936 - hitler odered troops into an area along germany's coast that was demiliterized by the treaty,
- little resistance from world leaders, unpunished by the leauge
- same year General Franco and his fascist followers led an attack on spain's gov
- started a civil war between the elected socialist gov and the rebel forces of Franco
- democratic gov around the world chose not to get involved, but socialist supporters went to spain to fight Franco
37
The policy of appeasement
from appeasement to war
throughout the 1930's western democracies adopted a policy of appeasement in response to germany's agression
- didnt want to fight another war, leaders were willing to make concessions to Hitler to keep the peace
- in 1938 Hitler took over Austria and then demanded the right take over a german speaking region in west Czech
- it was given to him, he said it would be last territorial claim
- 1939 ignored his previous pledge and took over the rest of Czech, and later Poland
- Made a non-aggressive pact with Stalin (leader of soviet union) to not fight each other if one of them went to war
- lots of bitter fighting when germany invaded Poland
- britain and france order germany out of poland and when he didnt they declared ware on germany
38
Canada's response to growing tensions
- throughout the 30's canadians including PM King remained isolationists
- many canadians believed the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh
- PM King was anxious to find out what Hitler's intentions were and visited him
- thought hitelr had no warlike intentions, saw no need for Canada to become involved or accpet Jewish refugees
- didnt want more competition for jobs, unemplyment still an issue
- oceanliner St. Louis with 900+ jews onboard was refused permission to dock on east coast of Canada
- many canadians didnt share the gov. anti-semitic views, Rallies were held in support of a more humane immigration policy
39
isolationists
people uninterested in affairs outside their borders
40
Canada's response to growing tensions
- throughout the 30's canadians including PM King remained isolationists
- many canadians believed the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh
- PM King was anxious to find out what Hitler's intentions were and visited him
- thought hitelr had no warlike intentions, saw no need for Canada to become involved or accpet Jewish refugees
- didnt want more competition for jobs, unemplyment still an issue
- oceanliner St. Louis with 900+ jews onboard was refused permission to dock on east coast of Canada
- many canadians didnt share the gov. anti-semitic views, Rallies were held in support of a more humane immigration policy
41
isolationists
people uninterested in affairs outside their borders
