The Great Depression

The Great Depression The 1930’s was a huge decade of history filled with many important events that changed how we think. However, one crucial influence to the 1930’s was the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a major event in history and widely affected the 1930’s. The Great Depression was a world-wide economic downfall in which things such as industrialism and construction came to a near halt. There is no true date as to when the Great Depression started, but experts believe that the key beginning to the Great Depression was the stock market crash on October 29, 1929. As a result, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell almost 23 percent and the market lost between 8 billion and 9 billion dollars in stock value.

The Great Depression had many effects, mainly to the Western industrialized countries such as the United States. One major effect of the Great Depression was the huge increase of unemployment. From 1929 to 1932, the unemployment rate went up a colossal 607%. Most of these unemployed came from jobs involving industrialism and construction. These types of jobs were widely affected by the Great Depression. During the Great Depression, industrial production went down 46%. Things such as foreign trade were also in affect, going down 70%.

An additional effect of the Great Depression was the amount of people that were put on the streets due to job and home loss. During the great depression, as much as 200,000 young people and 25,000 families roamed through the country looking for food, clothing, shelter, and a job. Millions of Americans also died from and suffered disease from malnutrition. Family life was also affected during the Great Depression. It forced many couples to delay their marriages and have to wait before they could get married. Things like this also drove the birthrate down below the replacement level for the first time in American history. Divorce rate went down, with couples having no choice but to stay with their spouses due to lack of independent stability. However the abandonment rate skyrocketed. By 1940, 1.5 million married women were living apart from their husbands. More than 200,000 vagrant children wandered the country as a result of the breakup of their families.

In order for these affects to stop, the Great Depression had to be ended in some way. In order to deal with the Great Depression, president Franklin Roosevelt set out a series of programs called “The New Deal.” One great example of these programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps. (CCC) The Civilian Conservation Corps was created in 1933 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to combat unemployment. This work relief program had the desired effect and provided jobs for many Americans during the Great Depression. The CCC was responsible for building many public works and created structures and trails in parks across the nation. There were many other programs similar to this such as the Civil Works Administration, National Recovery Act, and the Public Works Administration. All of these programs came together as “The New Deal” and were the leading solution to end the Great Depression.