Causes of The Great Depression

distribution of wealth, oligopolies, sick industries, new technology, banks, installment plans, and problems from WWI 

Unequal distribution of wealth: not enough purchasing power. Partly b/c gov. made rich pay less taxes and most ppl were living below the poverty level, so there was not enough puchasing power to maintain the economy

Oligopolies: (the economy was dominated by them) prices were artificially inflated, instead of supply and demand.

Sick Industries: coal, RR, textile, agriculture>>>overproduction w/o demand

New Technology: they led to further overproduction

Poorly managed and regulated banks

Installment Plans

Policies of the Fed. Gov.

*high tariffs

*low interest rates> encouraged loan speculation

*made ppl think the gov was better than it really was

International Probs from WWI: high tariffs, and europeans not able to pay back loans to US

Spark of the Great Depression

loans, speculators, margin calls

(speculated: many hoped to get rich)

1. Banks had given risky loans to speculators who invested it in the stock market→speculators relied upon stock market going up so they could get teh $ to repay the loans

2. Banks themselves had invested in the market

3. late 1920's stock market begins to run out of investors

4. investors sensed danger and began selling off their holdings→prices fell→more ppl sold→prices fell more (vicious cycle)

5. lenders started making margin calls (demanding their money back immediately)

*ppl wernt able to pay it back b.c their stock hadnt gone up

*banks wernt gettingtheir $ back→many had to close

*cause a huge bank run but most ppl lost their life savings

October 29, "Black Tuesday", prices took the steepest drop ever and $10-$15 million was lost.

This continued and by November (one week later) $30 billion was lost

Social Effects of the Great Depression

women, men, families, AA's

• more women were working and still straying from traditional roles and values.
• traditional attitudes reinforced opposition to female employment. some fundamentalist thought women were taking jobs that rightfully belonged to men.
• some private employers or companies stopped hiring women and dismissed those who were married
• divorce rates go down (ppl can't afford it)
• desertion (men leaving the family) however, goes up! (they feel bad b.c they can't provide for their family so they leave)
• men loose self-esteem b/c they don't have a job
• birth rates go down
• marriages were postponed
• Hoovervilles: shantytowns named to mock pres. Hoover, where unemployed and homeless people lived in poverty
• AA unemployment rates were 2x of whites (jobless whites took AA traditional jobs)
• local and state govs. set higher requirments for AA's to receive aid

In FDR's first 100 days (3months) in office he pushed 15 major bills through congress. The bills would reshape every aspect of the economy from banking and industry to agriculture and social welfare. 

The bills provided Relief (financial), Recovery (jobs), and Reformed the economy (prevent another depression from happening again).

Roosevelt's Financial Targets*

banks

1. national bank Holiday: close all remaining banks

2. Emergency Banking Act: gov extended assistance to sound banks and reorganized weak ones

3. federal Deposit Insurance Corps (FDIC): insured bank deposits for all bank members- protected your savings account

stocks (regulated and reformed the stock market)

1. Securities Act: reformed the sale of stocks to prevent insider abuses

2. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC): regulate the stock market to avoid dishonest practices

credit

1. Home Owners Loan Corporation: helped pay mortages

2. Farm Credit Administration: helped farmers par mortages

*The 15 major bills of the New Deal Plan reshaped every aspect of the economy. FDR believed that by increasing gov programs, business activity would increase thereby fostering consuemr confidence and investment which would keep the economy growing.

Legacy of the New Deal

and lasting programs

The New Deal's greatest legacy was the shift in government philosophy to be way more involved in the economy. People said the gov had to get involved to ensure the health of the nations economy and welfare f the citizens. The lasting programs of the New Deal are the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Act, the Tennesse Valley Authority, and the Social Security Act

Lasting programs= Federal Deposit Corp protect your savings account.  Securites and Exchange Act regulated teh stock market to avoid dishonest prices. Tennessee valley Authority built a thing to convert h₂0 to electricity in the Tenn. Valley. Social Security Act provided pensions for the elderly

The federal court has to approve anything before the president (FDR) can make anything a law. FDR gets mad-doesn't like them telling him what he can and can't do-so he wanted to add/appoint his own 6 more justices. People got mad at him. said no, that's just like the spoils system.

-It revived conservative opposition to FDR

Facism and Communism

Stalin v. Hitler/Mussolini

Both include:

*nationalism (extreme patriotism marked by a feeling of superiorty over other countries)

*centralized government (the form of government in which all power is concentrated in a central authority)

*militaristic expansionism

*want more ownership of property

War Production Board (WPB) and Office of War Management (OWM)- these were both created to help the regulation of all war production

*car industries started making tanks, jeeps, artillery, cooking pots, ect. for the war

*existing factories retool to make war equipment and new factories turned out thousands of planes and ships

*america's mass production techniques blow japan and germany away

*by 1944, 40 percent of military production was coming from the US

Going into WWII brough US out of the Great Depression b/c we made a lot of money making and selling war supplies.

*overall income per capita doubled. poorest quarter of americans made up some of the ground lost during the Great Depression 

A meeting that transferred Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) to Germany in order to have Hitler promise not to make any further territorial demands in Europe. 

The agreement appeared to prevent a war with Germany. But then the German army seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. In taking this action, Hitler had broken the Munich agreement and the British Prime Minister realized that Hitler could not be trusted.

upheld the internment plan. This court plan said the US could have internment camps b/c of safety and fear of Japanese spies.

*112,000 japanese on the west coast were forcibly moved to ten internment camps known as Executive Order 9906

June 6, 1944

code name for the entire campaign across Northern France. A series of landings on France.

3 most important factors in order for fight to occur:

1. coordination of men

2. good weather

3. the element of surprise

D- Day was the day allie troops landed in Normandy

*planned by Eisenhower who is a part of SHAEF

• This conference demanded Germany's surrender and divided Germany into 4 zones of occupation under a unified control commission in Berlin.
• USSR agreed to declare war on Japan 3months after Germany's surrender.
•  Stalin gave very vague promises that non-communist can participate in post war government
• Allies plan to issue an ultimatum to Japan for their surrender otherwise they face utter destruction (atomic bombs)

US was restricting Japanese imports. we set an embargo on them, but they bombed us to eliminate our war ships and strategize. They missed a lot of vital war ships; however, this action got the US into the war

they killed a lot of people, but they failed to destroy Pearl Harbors ship repair faculties, the bases power plant, or its fuel tanks. US aircraft carriers escaped destruction

the building of the atomic bomb

developed the first nuclear weapons. Top Secret

*turning point in the eastern theatre

took place in Stalingrad, Russia between Germans and Soviets

Soviets won

the longest and largest military campaign

when: 1939 till Germany's defeat

-lasted the entire 6 years of the war

allied victory

marks when the war began spreading to Africa*

American troops land in Morocco under General George Patton

In the deserts of North Africa (egypt). Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery and his troops forced German army to retreat from the Suez Canal.

Turning point in the African war b/c the allies secured the Suez Canal.

commander of Operation Torch

lead the US 3rd Army during liberation