The Great Depression Essay
The Great Depression Essay
The Great Depression started when the stock market of the United States crashed in 1929. Along with the crash, banks gave out careless loans and never got repaid; therefore they were forced to close. Machines took over most of the human jobs in factories. Besides that massive dust storms formed in the Great Plains. Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico became known as Dust Bowl. Crops died and farmers were forced to move to California for work. Additionally, America was still recovering from World War 1.
Millions of people lost their jobs during this time and thousands became homeless. Men were expected to work and when they were unable to, they became lazy. Those who didn’t lose their jobs formed sit-in strikes to gain decent benefits and safe working conditions. By 1933, 25% of Americans were unemployed. The president at that time, President Hoover, did very little to help build up the economy because he believed that the nation would rebuild itself. He also strongly believed that the government should not interfere and refused to offer any help until 1932. When President Hoover finally realized that America could not pull itself together again, he stepped in. His response to the Great Depression was too little, too late. Hoover thought that trying to fix unemployed worker’s job problems would only make the matter worse. So he turned to charitable organizations, but they too were helpless. America’s citizens believed that their president had turned his back on the country’s problems. In the1932 election Hoover was beaten by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The new president quickly whipped a plan into action. He called it the New Deal. Its three main goals were relief, recovery and reform. During the first few months, President Roosevelt shut down banks and had their contents examined. If he thought that a bank wasn’t safe enough then he would shut it down, but if it was then he opened it to the public. He mapped out
The Great Depression started when the stock market of the United States crashed in 1929. Along with the crash, banks gave out careless loans and never got repaid; therefore they were forced to close. Machines took over most of the human jobs in factories. Besides that massive dust storms formed in the Great Plains. Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico became known as Dust Bowl. Crops died and farmers were forced to move to California for work. Additionally, America was still recovering from World War 1.
Millions of people lost their jobs during this time and thousands became homeless. Men were expected to work and when they were unable to, they became lazy. Those who didn’t lose their jobs formed sit-in strikes to gain decent benefits and safe working conditions. By 1933, 25% of Americans were unemployed. The president at that time, President Hoover, did very little to help build up the economy because he believed that the nation would rebuild itself. He also strongly believed that the government should not interfere and refused to offer any help until 1932. When President Hoover finally realized that America could not pull itself together again, he stepped in. His response to the Great Depression was too little, too late. Hoover thought that trying to fix unemployed worker’s job problems would only make the matter worse. So he turned to charitable organizations, but they too were helpless. America’s citizens believed that their president had turned his back on the country’s problems. In the1932 election Hoover was beaten by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The new president quickly whipped a plan into action. He called it the New Deal. Its three main goals were relief, recovery and reform. During the first few months, President Roosevelt shut down banks and had their contents examined. If he thought that a bank wasn’t safe enough then he would shut it down, but if it was then he opened it to the public. He mapped out