Childrens Illustrated Encyclopedia

158

DEPRESSION

OF THE 1930S

Amount of sales on

the New York Stock

Exchange 1929-32.

JARROW MARCH

In Britain, mass unemployment led to “hunger

marches.” In 1936, some 200 out-of-work and hungry

men marched 300 miles (480 km) from Jarrow, in

the northeast of England, to the capital, London,

in order to draw people’s attention to their plight.

WALL STREET CRASH
On October 24, 1929, known as
“Black Thursday,” the boom years
that had followed World War I came
to an end. To get richer, people had
been investing a lot of money in the
New York Stock Exchange. When it
crashed, people wildly tried to sell their
shares. In two months, stock values had
declined by one-third. Many people
lost all their savings, and thousands
of companies collapsed.

1931 :

$ 600

million

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

When Franklin D. Roosevelt

became US president in 1933,

he set up many programs

to improve the economy. The

Tennessee Valley Authority was

given money to employ people

to build massive dams and

hydroelectric power stations

in southeastern

United States.

1929 :
$ 1
billion

DUST BOWL

During the 1930s, a terrible drought turned

the soil of the American plains into dust. High

winds blew clouds of dust over fields and farms,

which hid the sunlight. The region became

known as the Dust Bowl. Many ruined farmers

were forced to trek across the country to find

work in the orchards and

farms of California.

1930 :

$ 800

million

1932 :

$ 400

million

IN OCTOBER 1929, prices on the New York Stock Exchange crashed

and investors lost vast amounts of money. This was the beginning of an

economic depression, or slump, which was to affect the whole world

throughout the following decade. The crash caused untold panic and the

near-collapse of the American economy. Banks stopped lending money,

factories closed, and trade declined. The result was mass unemployment: by

1932, as many as 13.7 million US workers were unemployed. The Depression

quickly spread across the world and hit almost every nation. Many countries

had relied on loans from the United States to help them recover from World

War I (1914-18). Now these loans stopped.

Businesses collapsed, and millions of

people were thrown out of work.

Unemployment caused misery and

poverty. Disillusioned and

frightened people

turned to extreme

right-wing political

parties, such as the

National Socialist

German Workers’ (Nazi)

Party in Germany. The

buildup to World War II

ended the Depression,

because increased

production of arms

created jobs.

Find out more

Money

Roosevelt, franklin delano

World war i

World war ii