Underlying Causes of the Great Depression
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Underlying Causes of the Great Depression • over-production and over- expansion • high tariffs killed international trade • dependence on too few primary products • only natural resources for export
Transcript of Underlying Causes of the Great Depression
Underlying Causes of the Great
Depression
• over-production and over-
expansion
• high tariffs killed
international trade
• dependence on too few
primary products
• only natural resources for export
Underlying Causes continued
• Low standard of living for
many – not everyone
prospered in the 1920’s
• Canadians and
businesses overly
optimistic about the future
• Overuse of credit – buy
now, pay later
• Stocks bought on margin
(credit)
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First Symptom- Stock Market Crash
Immediate Causes – Drought/Dustbowl
• On top of dropping prices and increasing costs, farmers faced droughts for 10 years which resulted in dustbowl storms
• This is one of the reasons for the decade being called “The Dirty Thirties”
Dustbowl Storm
• Day turned to night
Dustbowls
• Not rotating crops also contributed to
dustbowls
• Farmers only planted wheat because that
was what earned them the most
• But,
• Wheat erodes the top of the soil and in dry
conditions, the soil blows away in a dust
storm
After the Storm
It finally rained, no soil left to hold the
moisture – too late for this farmer
Impact of Great Depression
• This iconic image is of
a migrant farm worker
and mother in the
U.S.
• What is the impact of
the Great Depression
on her and her
family?
Preparing a Meal
No where to go
• Not necessarily 1930’s
• Can be seen any day in
downtown Toronto, 2009
Where to go?
What about impact on Immigrants?
• “In my search for employment I was free to
range the whole of commercial Winnipeg
and nobody denied me a job from any
ulterior motive. This did not hold for the
Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews. … As much
as two-thirds of it (Winnipeg) was barred
and bolted against them.”
Cinderella Man
Hooverville – Central Park - NYC
