Economic Collapse & Great Depression Flashcards
2.The Great Depression-Period of economic hardship in America during the 1930s
a. People become desperate
i. Bonus Army
b. Lost faith in President Hoover,
i. “Hoovervilles”
c. Election of Franklin Roosevelt(1932)
i. Immediately declares a “bank holiday”…closed all of them for 4
days, evaluated them, and then only allowed for the secure ones to
re-open
ii. FDR calms the people (fireside chats)
iii.Convinces the people who have cash to in-vest it in the re-opened,
secure banks
iv. In one week, Americans return over $600 million to the banks
d.Dust Bowl
i. In the mid-1930s, the plains states were experiencing conditions
that had lasted years
ii. High winds created dust storms that buried farms over a 50-million
acre region
iii. Many farmers packed up and headed west to California looking
for work (Route 66)
iv. These refuges however, soon overcrowded the CA towns and
created new problems
1.1929 Stock Market Crash(October 23)
a. Stick prices drop and people panic
b. People try to sell stocks and withdraw funds from banks
c. Banks fail because they could not repay the money to the people
i. They had loaned it to other countries/businesses after WWI
d.A chain reaction takes place
i. Many banks struggle to get money back to the people
ii. They start to call in loans o free up much needed cash
iii. People do not have the money to pay back, so both the banks
and the people oh bankrupt
iv. Life savings disappear
