The great depression (1929-1932) was a time of extreme hardship of people living in Australia. Even before the wall street crash, unemployment in Australia was already at 10%. After the crash of wall street Australia’s unemployment rate nearly doubled. The cause of the great depression is still the subject of debate by economists. Although the collapse of New York Stock exchange determined its timing there were several factors involved. Reasons were a fall in export price sales, a fall in overseas loans leading to reduction in government capital spending, a fall in construction. Socially this impacted Australia in many ways. Without work for more than 30% of Australians and a steady income people lost their homes and were forced to live out on the streets, other social effects of the great depression were, …show more content…
Politically the great depression hit Australia hard, as many Australians lost confidence in their government representatives. A number of radical or extremist organizations gather strength and popularity as a result of the large scale public dissatisfaction. In Australia the developing of the new capital Canberra was put to a stop leaving a population of 7,000 in limbo, workers were laid off and the federal capital commission was abolished. The Sydney harbor bridge was a great way of bringing employment back into Australia during the depression. At the time of the war and after the great depression it was Australian best interest to have an alliance with Great Britain. Australia needed to form an alliance with Great Britain during World War II, because if the war ended up near or in Australia, we would need the help from Great Britain and their allies. Having Great Britain as its ally at that time was the right thing to do as it protected its colonies from the imperil japan and other foreign invaders. During the period of 1942 Australia was extremely worried as the fall of Singapore in February 1942 and had the threat of a possibility of a Japanese
The large foreign debt that Australia held before the depression caused the effects of the Great Depression to be so grave. Before the depression, Australia was building large amounts of infrastructure. 2 This led them to accumulate large amounts of debt. The depression caused a reduction in economic activity which in turn lead to a reduction in tax revenues. With the reduction of the amount of tax revenue the government was earning, it made it very difficult for Australia to pay back its loans. Fearing that Australia would default on its loans, The Bank of England sent an envoy to the Australian government. Sir Otto Niemeyer told the government at a conference in Melbourne that they needed to limit government spending. This is known as the "Melbourne Agreement." 12 The Australian government's policy at the time was to cut back on spending. 9 This cutback in expenditure caused there to be less money available during the depression which further worsened its impact. Instead of spending more money in the economy by creating large public works projects and in turn creating employment, by reducing the amount of money spent in the economy, the Australian government made the situation much worse. During the depression, Australia large amounts of it's gold reserves to stay afloat. 9 "In the early 1930s, Bankers, who were the only source of new money or credit, deliberately refused loans to industry, commerce and agriculture." 6 The great
The Great Depression first started as early as 1928, but did not affect the United States until 1929. The Great Stock Market crash started the event of the Depression here in America, but was not the main cause to why it happened. During the early stages of the depression, President Hoover failed to help the economy and continued with his belief system of giving people the least help they needed, so they can earn themselves a rightful spot with pride, not with government’s help. The Great Depression was a very intense experience for us, even until today, the
The Great Depression was a very influential era in American history, affecting many future generations. One of the most prevalent impacts it had on society was the extreme poverty that swept across the nation, affecting both people in cities and in the country. The main cause for this poverty was the mass loss of jobs among the middle class. Millions lost their jobs and consequently their homes. Families lived out of tents and cars in shanty towns or Hoovervilles. In these camps, many people didn’t have their basic human needs met, children and adults alike starved. They lived in clothes that were caked in dirt and tattered, too small for growing children and too cold for the frail elderly. Government relief programs attempted to help but offered little support to the now impoverished families of the millions that lost everything.
The Great Depression was caused by the stock market crash in 1929. The Great Depression was very sad time for Americans, who faced many adversities which ultimately changed the way they lived. During this period of time unemployment rose to nearly 25% of the population, those who did not lost their job saw a dramatic decrease in their pay.
In conclusion, the Great Depression had many contributing factors, and the Great Crash of 1929 was not the sole cause. The “Dust Bowl” was a major factor in the Depression, and foreign affairs as well as banking failures were important contributions
The Great Depression originated in the United States with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929. The depression was the biggest economic fall in American’s history. This crash stretched throughout the globe and affected the rich as well as the poor. There were many causes that assisted in bringing the depression into existence. However one of the main causes was the disproportionate riches during the nineteen-twenties. The gap between the rich and the working class people was the enlarged industrialize production during this period. Also in this period production cost fell quickly, wages rose slowly and prices remained steady.
The Great Depression- The Great Depression was one of the worst times for the Western Industrialized World, when it came to its economy The depression originated in the U.S, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929. Cities were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. The Great Depression affected anybody that was indebted. Some countries affected; Canada, Germany, Great Britain. Not everyone was affected in the same way during the Great Depression. Many of the rich weren't affected at all but the poor couldn't do anything about it. Thousands of homeless families camped out on the Green Law in New York City, which was an empty reservoir during the Great Depression. During the 1930s, manufacturing employees earned about $17 per week. Doctors earned around $61
In 1945, after World War II had finished, Australia finally felt at peace – that was until Communism began to have an effect on the entire world. Australia had a lot to fear, with the threat likely to infiltrate the country both domestically (an established Communist Party) and internationally (a geographical location close to countries that had already fallen victim to communism, such as China and Korea). Australia responded to both of these threats in a way that caused a lot of political controversy and has created bonds with other parts of the world that are still activated today.
The Australian Government faced a number of social problems during the Depression as can be seen in these 2 sources.
The great impact of changes in Australia’s economy during world war one caused a great mix of emotions. In the effect of Australia’s government cancelling existing trade agreements with Germany and Austria-Hungary one of the earliest impacts of the war started to occur. The life of an Australian worker became very difficult as Australian firms in industries such as steel-making and pharmaceuticals were found having to take up contracts German rivals previously been filled and fortunes were suddenly available to firms such as BHP and Nicholas. A series of ‘War loans’ and then ‘Peace loans’ were used by the common-wealth to finance the war.
The Great Depression is one of the most misunderstood events in not only American history but also Great Britain, France, Germany, and many other industrialized nations. It also has had important consequences and was an extremely devastating event in America. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. When the New York Stock Exchange crashed in October 1929, the United States dropped sharply into a major depression. The world was in wide demand for agricultural goods during World War I, but they had rapidly decreased after the war and rural America experienced a severe depression throughout most of the 1920's and even on into the 1930's.
The great depression was a drastic decline in the world’s economy that resulted in mass unemployment and widespread poverty that lasted from 1929 – 1939. During the great depression, a lot of males were unemployed and females had to serve as breadwinners to their families with the little job they had, “in 1931 one in four wage-earners were
The stock market crash not only sent employment rates to plummet, but even sent production rates down. This forced millions of families to the streets (“Facts about the Depression”). By 1930, four million Americans looking for work could not find it. Citizens were forced to buy on credit, but fell into debt because they could not find the money to pay it back. The economic downfall even lead the US treasury to not be able to retain the money needed to pay their government workers. Seeing what was happening to the country and its economy, the nation ran to any bank they could find and tried to withdraw their savings. With the amount of bank runs, the banks began to shut down (“The Great Depression”). The economy controlled the lives of these people, and the economic collapse brought a downfall to the entire
Research Question. Background 1918-1925 – Brittany At the end of WWI, the Australian economy experienced rapid economic expansion and development. Throughout the 1920s, Australia placed a heavy reliance on agricultural exports.
The Great Depression is a defining moment in time for not only American, but world history. This was a time that caused political, economical, and social unrest. Not only did the Great Depression cause a world wide panic, it also caused a world wide crisis unlike any before it. This paper will analyze both the causes and the effects of the Great Depression in the United States of America.