The Wall Street Crash (1929) (6)

Question 1

Wall Street is where the ___ ___ Stock Exchange is situated.

Answer 1

New York

Question 2

Many people had made fortunes by buying and selling shares at ____. People had put their life ___ into shares.

Answer 2

profit savings

Question 3

What did investors start to question in October 1929?

Answer 3

Investors began to question whether the shares were really worth the prices being asked. Some investors no longer felt that their money was safe and would grow with the stock market, and they started to sell large numbers of shares to get their money back.

Question 4

What happened on Black Tuesday?

Answer 4

There was a rush as investors tried desperately to sell their shares. This created an excess of shares where demand was shrinking, resulting in shares becoming cheaper. In a single day, the values of shares dropped by $8000 million. Those who had still had shares, their shares had no value.

Question 5

What did this collapse of the stock market lead to?

Answer 5

The Great Depression

Question 6

Explain how the economy collapsed. (5)

Answer 6

Question 7

What were the economic and social effects of the crash? (4)

Answer 7

• Unemployment
• Homelessness
• The collapse of businesses, industry and banks
• Agriculture

Question 8

Explain how employment suffered.

Answer 8

As factories closed, the number of unemployed grew rapidly. There was no social security or unemployment for those who had lost their jobs. Unemployed people waited in breadlines for free food from charity organisations.

Question 9

Explain how people became homeless.

Answer 9

The unemployed were unable to pay mortgage bonds or rent and were evicted from their homes. Many ended up homeless, living on the streets or in ‘shantytowns’. about 2 million people traveled from place to place on railway goods trains, looking for work.

Question 10

How did businesses and industry collapse?

Answer 10

Many factories and businesses, affected by the drop in demand for goods, retrenched workers, reduced wages or closed down. Shares prices continued to fall until they were worth, on average 1/5 of their pre-Crash value.

Question 11

How did the banking system collapse?

Answer 11

It collapsed as investors rushed to their banks and withdrew all their savings, often standing in queues overnight. Over 11 000 banks closed down, leading to a loss of confidence in the whole banking system.

Question 12

How did the crash affect agriculture?

Answer 12

Food prices dropped even further. The Dust Bowl made things worse. Poor farming methods and drought turned vast areas of the country into a desert when strong winds blew topsoil away. Farms were abandoned as thousands of ruined farmers and evicted tenant farmers migrated westwards, to look for work in California.

Question 13

What was the problem with the relief measures the government introduced?

Answer 13

They were not big enough or imaginative enough to solve problems.

Question 14

What proof is there that dissatisfaction with the government began to rise?

Answer 14

Strikes and demonstrations in several cities.

Question 15

In 1932, a large group of demonstrators, mainly ___ veterans, held a march in the capital, DC, demanding that the government pay them a promised ___.

Answer 15

WW1

bonus

Question 16

Did the government give them that promised bonus?

Answer 16

No, instead accused them of being criminals and communists and used the army to break up the demonstration. As a result, people lost confidence in the government, and in the capitalist system as a whole.