The Great Depression Flashcards
Why was it a problem factories were over producing goods?
Not everyone had the money to buy them and so they wouldn’t get sold
Why did people begin to sell their shares?
They were worried they wouldn’t get their share of company profits at the end of the year
How did people try to make sure their shares were sold?
Dropped their share price to attract a buyer
What lead to the Wall Street crash?
Factories overproducing good, people selling their shares and people dripping their share prices
When did Wall Street crash?
October 24th 1929
What was the Wall Street crash?
13 million shares were sold on Wall Street stock exchange, five times more than usual and share prices in nearly all companies dropped.
What happened on October 29th 1929?
16 million shares were sold and the average price of shares dropped by 40 cents leading share holders to loose a total of $8000 million
What were the effects of the Wall Street crash?
Banks went bankrupt because because when people borrowed money from banks to buy shares, share prices were low so investors couldn’t sell shares for a high price to pay back the bank
How many banks went bankrupt and when?
In 1929, 659 banks went bankrupt
How were the unemployed affected by the Depression?
13 million had no job, 2 million men were homeless and suicides increased by 30%
How were farmers affected by the Depression?
40,000 family farms were repossessed, droughts killed crops in the Great Plains and millions became migrant farm workers.
What was unlucky about farmers in the Great Depression?
There happened to be storms that buried farms
How were businessmen affected by the Depression?
85,000 businesses went bankrupt, 9 million savings accounts vanished and 6000 banks went out of business
What kind of president was hoover seen as?
A do nothing president which was not completely true
How did Hoover try to restart the economy?
Tax cuts
What did hoover try to persuade business leaders not to do?
Cut wages
How did Hoover try to prevent bankruptcy?
Supported banks through the reconstruction finance company
How did Hoover make the Depression worse?
By introducing tariffs to protect US industries but then prevented national trade
Why did people not like Hoover?
He didn’t help people much when they were suffering and the republicans feared that supporting people would make them less independent
Why was the bonus army angry and what did they do?
They couldn’t afford food and the government refused to meet them so around 2,500 ex soldiers marched to Washington
What did the bonus army want and what was the consequence of their actions?
They wanted their pensions of $5000 early to try and survive the depression but this lead to police using tear gas and leading to 2 protesters and a baby to be killed
Why were farmers angry and what did they want?
Couldn’t pay for mortgages and didn’t have any food so 500 heavily armed farmers marched into a shopping Centre in Arkansas threatening to smash shops and they blocked roads with chairs and logs to create food shortages so they could get free food
What was the consequence of the farmers actions?
Their income didn’t rise and they were still hungry
Why were the unemployed angry and what did they want?
They didn’t have jobs and were starving so 1500 men stormed the factory of Fruit Owners Express company to get jobs
