Hunger During The Great Depression
Posted by Keith Reinber in Uncategorized, tags: arts, entertainment, general, history, misc, Miscellaneous, Movies TV, news, UncategorizedThe history of the 1930s say that when the stock market crashed in the year 1929, it was the start of the Great Depression. People who traded in the stock market tried to sell their share but no one was buying. Many people traded in the stock market because it was the surest and quickest way to get rich.
Banks and other financial institutions which also invested most of their funds in the stock market found themselves with no more money. Faced with this predicament, some of the banks had to close. The closing of a few banks got people scared and they tried to withdraw their money from the other banks. Due to the mass withdrawals, the banks had to close because they had no more money.
People who were not able to withdraw their money on time went bankrupt. Businesses that were not abke to get back their deposits from the banks had to let go of a big percentage of their workers and to save some more, had to cut back on the work hours. People who had money were too afraid to spend. And because the business had gone bad because no one was buying anymore, businesses had to shut down and the employees had to be laid off. The 1930s history would also reveal that the Americans were so poor they can hardly eat. During the past economic depressions, the farmers and animal breeders were the least affected because they at least had food. But during the Great Depression, the Great Plains were hit hard by drought and horrendous dust storms.
Due to overgrazing, the loose dirt that were exposed were carried away by winds and whirled around and hurled onto the Great Plains. The dust storms destroyed almost all of the crops leaving the farmers without food and money. During those years, technology gave birth to the tractor. The farmers would usually take out loans to buy seeds and rent a tractor, but when the crops were destroyed, the farmers found themselves hungry and in debt.
So the banks foreclosed on their land and they had to move out. They headed to places where they heard there were hiring for work. For a single vacancy, thousands of people applied. When Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan, the United States had to go into war. Because of the need of weapons and artilleries, the United States had a sudden chance for economic recovery.
The history of the 1930s show that the Americans, as a people, went through the greatest economic difficulty. However, they were able to surpass the challenges of the times and is now considered as one of the richest countries in the world.Click here for more information on 1930s history.
Entries (RSS)