Great Depression

Great Depression

In 1929, the world was hit by the Great Depression. A depression is a serious and long-lasting economic downturn. It leads to huge job losses.

Causes

• The Great Depression began in the United States. It had two main causes there.

• First, factories were making too many goods.

• Second, a large number of people had too much debt. They owed more money than they could pay back. 

Multiple Choice

What are the two main causes of the Great Depression?

• Devaluing currency and war

• Overproduction of goods and too much debt (owed money)

• Over production of goods and war

• Too much debt and war

Economic Response

• Many countries tried to become economically independent. They tried to stop importing goods from other countries.

•  Instead, they made and bought as many goods as possible within their own borders.

• Governments put very high tariffs, or taxes, on all imported goods. This was done to protect their country's businesses. It was also a way to protect jobs. 

Multiple Choice

What are two ways countries tried to become "economically independent"?

• Stop importing goods and and buy from within their country

• Import more goods and create new laws

• Stop importing goods but buy from other countries

• Stop exporting goods and buy from within their country

Solution?

• Some governments intentionally lowered the value of their currency

• A currency is a nation's form of money. The dollar is the U.S. currency. Mexico's currency is the peso.

• The countries that devalued their currency gave the goods they exported, or sold abroad, an advantage. They became cheaper than other countries' goods.  

Multiple Choice

What is currency?

• How much a nation sells

• How much a nation buys

• A nation's form of money

• A nation's form of taxes

GDP

• Gross domestic product (GDP) dropped in many countries. GDP is the total value of all goods produced by a country.

• It is a measure of a country's wealth. 

•  GDP dropped between 1929 and 1932. Most likely the reason is that fewer goods were being produced. 

Multiple Choice

What is GDP?

• Total value of goods produce in a country

• Total value of goods imported into a country

• Total value of goods wasted in a country

Populist

• A person who works to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are not heard by the elite or rich.

• Adolf Hitler was a populist that helped improve Germany's GDP by spending on military goods.

• Military goods are guns, tanks, and other things used in war.

Multiple Choice

Adolf Hitler was a populist leader which means what?

• He wanted everyone to have freedom.

• He wanted to help the elite or the rich get richer.

• He convinced the common person that the elites were taking advantage of them.

Colonies

• Colonies are basically countries/people used for business.

• An example of a colony was when the Americans used what is now the U.S. as simply a place to use slaves and land to make money

Great Depression hurt colonies

• The Great Depression hurt colonial economies a lot.

• This means that people who lived in colonies made less because they paid more in taxes to their European owners.

• European countries like Britain, France, and Spain owned most colonies around the world!

Multiple Choice

How did the Great Depression hurt "colonial economies"?

• People of the colonies were becoming poorer because the colony's owner was demanded more money from them.

• People of the colonies were becoming richer because they were producing more goods.

Hitler Places Blame

• After the first world war, Germany had to pay money for trying to take over other countries.

• This was called reparations.

• Hitler gained support from Germans because he said that Germany should no longer pay reparations.

Multiple Choice

What does reparations mean?

• Taking money away.

• Paying back money to people who were hurt by your actions.

• Using money to create government buildings.

Two Causes of the World War 2 (WW2)

• Germany did not want to pay reparations for World War 1 anymore.

• Great Depression forced poor countries like Germany to give jobs to people creating military goods. This helped improve the economy.

Open Ended

SUMMARIZE: Please provide at least a 4 sentence summary of what you learned about today!

THINK ABOUT: GREAT DEPRESSION, World War 2, Adolf Hitler, GDP, Colonies