The Great Depression: Causes and Effects

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The Great Depression Causes and Effects

• Backdrop for
• Bud, Not Buddy
• By Jean Strickland

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What was the Great Depression?

• It was the most serious economic downturn in the
  history of the United States.

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What caused the Great Depression?

• The banking structure was weak due to large debts
  owed to the United States after World War I.

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• Mass production of goods led people to buy more
  than they could afford. Thus, they went heavily
  into debt.

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• The Wall Street stock-market crash of 1929 was
  the final blow. Thousands of investors lost huge
  amounts of money, businesses failed, and peoples
  savings were wiped out. Millions descended into
  poverty.

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Effects of the Great Depression

• The stock market was in shambles. Everyone
  wanted to sell and no one wanted to buy. Stock
  became worthless.

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• Banks were unable to give their customers their
  money, so they could not continue to operate.

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• By 1933, one quarter of the U. S. workforce
  around than 15 million people were unemployed.

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• The Great Depression lasted over a decade. It
  didnt end in the United States until 1942, after
  the country entered World War II.

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Credits

• Photos courtesy of Library of Congress and the
  American Memory Collection.