The Great Depression

  • Entertainments

    New entertainments, such as cinemas, spectator sports, popular music and dances, appeared also giving the press and the radio a new function and more importance.
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    The Roaring Twenties

    It's a period of economic prosperity after World War 1, specially in EEUU which converted into the main international financial centre.
    The production line method, the standardised production and the rise of large corporations allowed a massive industrial development. This gave birth to the consumer society which was mainly based in buying all type of objects. If they hadn't enough money, then they could ask for a payment plans.
  • The Dawes Plan

    Due to the tensions between Germany and France because of the debts, EEUU decided to lend money to Germany. This allowed them to pay the reparations to the Allies which were able to pay their debt back to EEUU. In other words, EEUU lend its money in order to get it back and avoid a new war in Europe.
  • Causes of the crash of 1929

    After World War 1, the countries started to make all type of products which let to an excess in supply called overproduction. Apart from this, the stock market values rised a lot but it didn't reflect the real situation of the companies due to speculation. This last was a problem because the banks had lend money to the business/individuals who invested it into the stock market.
  • Black Thursday

    Day in which mass selling of stock began due to the companies' need for money to pay their debts. THis made that the stocks lost their value and, in consecuence, the companies and investors went bankrupt.
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    The Great Depression

    It's the name given to the economic crisis which started in 1929.
  • First year

    The customers took all their money out from the banks and did not pay the loans which made the banks fail. Also, without money, people could not buy so much industrial and farm products which made that investment decreased and many companies had to close. This let to a big increase in unemployment.
  • Consecuences

    Since EEUU was without money, it had to reduce its imports which was bad for the countries which based their economies in their exports. And, EEUU's banks took out all their investments from Europe which was also bad for many european banks which went bankrupt.
  • The New Deal

    It's a programme created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which allowed the state to intervene in the economy. The idea was to increase consumption and stimulate the economy by a series of measures. First, farmers were paid to produce less in order to increase the prices and profits. Second, the work day was shortened and a minimum wage and unemployment insurance were established. Third, the financial system was restructured. And, last, public works were created.
  • London Economic Conference

    The League of Nations tried to find international recovery measures. However, each country was only interested in its own benefit so the conference failed.
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    The Post-Depression Era

    This is the period that followed the great depression. It started in the year 1933 when the US had 13.8 million unemployed people, Great Britain 2.5 million, Germany 6 million and the rest of Europe 15 million and ended in the last years of the Second World War when the economy stabilized
  • Sweden recovers from the Great Depression

    Sweden becomes the first nation to recover fully from the Great Depression in 1934. Unlike in Roosevelt's New Deal, Sweden recovers from the great depression reducing the government's intervention in the economy and creating new businesses
  • The Schacht Plan

    Hjalmar Schacht, who had been the president of the German Central Bank (1923-1930), was appointed Minister of Economy by Hitler when the nazis took power. He was responsible for the economic policies on Nazi Germany whose main points were the cancellation of the WWI reparation payments and the emission of the Mefo bills, which could finance the public spending without getting into debt. With that policy, Germany went from having a 43% of unemployment rate in 1932 to a 12% in 1936.
  • Another Severe Recession

    The United States is hit with another severe economic downturn between the years 1937-38
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    Recovery

    After the 1937–38 recession the U.S. economy gets back on a recovery path, and production finally returns to its pre-depression numbers by 1942.
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    World War II

    The outbreak of the World War II, and especially the incorporation of the US to it in 1941 changed the economy of the world and contributed to restore the pre-crisis levels of production and employment
  • The US enters the Second World War

    The United States enters the Second World War in 1941 after the Japaneese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
  • The War Production Board

    President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes in January 1942 The War Production Board, wich was an agency of the US government that supervised war production during World War II. It was disolved in 1945 with the ending of the war. The production levels in the United States recovered its pre-crisis levels in 1942
  • Carole Lombard dies selling War Bonds

    The American actress Carole Lombard dies at the age of 33 in a plane crash when she was returning to her home after campaigning to sell American War Bonds. Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that she was the first American woman to die in WWII, and was awarded posthumously with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Lombard raised more than 2 million dollars in War Bonds
  • The World War II Ends

    The World War II ends with the surrender of Japan in 2 September 1945 after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki