The Great DepressionESSENTIAL QUESTION: WHAT CHALLENGES FACED DEMOCRACY IN THE 1920S AND 1930S?

Roaring 20s recap• The 1920s was filled with happiness at the end of

World War I and bitterness from the fight over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

• Reforms under progressive Presidents Roosevelt and Wilson slowed, but the “Roaring Twenties” was a decade of great cultural changes to American society.

• The Twenties were known by various images and names: the Jazz Age, the age of the Lost Generation, flappers, the speakeasy, organized crime, cosmetics, the “new” woman, and the Harlem Renaissance.

• All these changes created an iconic “world gone mad” that seemed it would never end...

Postwar European economies began to recover in the 1920s. Manufacturing and trade returned,

and the middle class became wealthier.

• Britain and France owed a substantial war debt to the United States.

• Germany’s economy was failing under its crushing reparations.

Some major European countries owed a great deal of money (war debt) and were not financially stable.

Economic Recovery

The United States emerged as the world’s leading economic power. American loans and investments backed the recovery of Europe.

• A stable American economy appeared to benefit everyone because of our lending power.

• Attempts by the Federal Reserve to maintain stability in the stock market failed.

• In 1929, overproduction of goods and a crisis in finance in the United States led to a world economic collapse.

US leads the way

Black ThursdayThe stock market crash of 1929 brings the roaring 20’s to a screaming halt. As you watch the video answer these questions:

1. Why did the stock market crash effect banks?

2. What is a bank run?

3. Why did president Roosevelt declare a Bank Holiday?

https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/1929-stock-market-crash

By the start of the 1930s, the economic crisis had spread around the world.

Governments tried to protect their economies, but nothing helped and unemployment rose.

The Great Depressionspread around the world to Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Stock Market Crash

Throughout the world, governments tried many methods to solve the crisis, but with little success.

• By 1931, one in four British workers was unemployed.

• Strikes brought down the government in France.

• Under U.S. President Herbert Hoover’s policies of nonintervention, the economy did not improve.

• People began calling slums that popped up in city-parks Hoovervilles and inside-out empty pockets Hoover flags.

Global Depression

• The Great Depression caused many people to lose faith in the ability of democratic governments to solve problems.

• Some European nations turned to authoritarian leaders who promised to restore order and prosperity.Unemployed men in Britain take part in a

“hunger march.”

Democracy begins to crumble

In 1932, Americans elected a new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Rooseveltintroduced the New Deal, and kept the public informed with his fireside chats.

• Stock market regulations

• Protection of bank deposits

• Aid to farmers

• Job creation

• Social Security pensions

The New Deal failed to end the Great Depression, but it did ease some of its effects.

The New Deal

Fireside chats

The medium of radio allowed president Roosevelt to go into people’s homes and give them hope during the great depression.

Read about this program and answer the analysis questions at the end of your notes.

http://www.history.com/topics/fireside-chats

Terms and People

• general strike – a strike by workers in many different industries at the same time

• overproduction – the situation that exists when production of goods exceeds demand

• Federal Reserve – the central banking system of the United States

• Great Depression – a time of global economic collapse

• Franklin D. Roosevelt – elected President of the United States in 1932

• New Deal – a massive package of economic and social programs introduced by FDR

In 1919, Britain, France, and the United States appeared powerful, but even some of the victors’economies were ravaged after World War I. Overproduction lead to a worldwide depression in the early 1930s.

What political and economic challenges did the leading democracies face in the 1920s and 1930s?

Guiding Question