Ch. 10 L2: Hard Times Hit Home

Ch. 10 L2: Hard Times Hit Home

Objective: Explain the effects of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and World War II in California.

The Great Depression

• Ten years after World War I, the Great Depression began. An economic depression happens when people lose their jobs and have less money to buy.

• One of the causes of the Great Depression was that companies made more products than they could sell.

• When the company cannot sell the products, it loses money.

• When companies continue to lose money, they close down.

• When they close down, workers lose their jobs.​

The Stock Market

• Another cause for the Great Depression was that many people were buying shares of stock. When people buy a share of stock, they become part owner of business. Some businesses did bad and their shares were soon worth less than what they had cost.

The Stock Market Crashes

• On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. The stock market is where shares of stock are bought and sold. A stock market crash happens when the prices of many different shares suddenly become very low.

• Many banks lost the money they had invested in the stock market.

• Many businesses could not pay back the bank. So the banks closed.

• People lost their jobs and their life saving. Many people lost their homes and farms.

Soil Turned to Dust

• During the 1930s, many states were affected by a drought, This drought lasted for so many years that the soil turned to dust.

• The areas where the drought occurred became known as the Dust Bowl.

• ​Many people from the Dust Bowl moved to California. Many Californians were looking for work and believed that the migrants would take their jobs.

• Some Californians tried to pass a law to keep the migrants out. The law did not pass.

• Migrant workers moved place to place to harvest crop. They were not paid much and lived in bad conditions.

New Projects Provide New Jobs

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the President of the United States in 1933.

• In order to bring the country out of the Great Depression, he started a program known as the New Deal. The New Deal was started to put people back to work.

• The construction of the Hoover Dam, Shasta Dam, and the Golden Gate Bridge were done under the New Deal.

Unfair Treatment for Mexican Workers

• During the Great Depression, a large number of Californians feared that Mexican Immigrants were taking the jobs of Americans.

• The Government began to deport, or send back to their country, Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

• The Mexican American community fought back against this discrimination.

Multiple Choice

California passed a law that kept migrants out of California.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

What was the name of the economic depression that happened in 1929?

• 10 Year Drought

• World War I

• Great Depression

Multiple Choice

What was the areas where the drought occurred called?

• Hollywood Bowl

• Dust Bowl

• Drought Bowl

• California

Multiple Choice

Which president started the program The New Deal?

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt

• Barrack Obama

• John Steinbeck

• Dorothea Lange