The Great Depression

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression

The Great Depression, also known as the 1929 crisis, is the period of world history that goes from the 1929 crash in the United States until the Second World War. This is the most important economic depression of the last century, which was accompanied by a significant deflation and an explosion in unemployment. First we will see what the precursor signs of the crisis of 1929 were, secondly we will study the Great Depression and thirdly the consequences of the Great Depression.

The extraordinary economic prosperity experienced by the United States in the 1920s is followed by a sudden and deep crisis with global consequences. Despite this prosperity, the country closes in on itself. Protectionist trade barriers are reinforced while xenophobia (limitation of immigration, the activities of the Ku Klux Klan) and the prohibition movement develop. By 1925, developing an industrial mass production, the U.S. provides 44% coal and 51% of the world's steel, with a high concentration of industry and new methods of efficiency and organization of work. While the crisis is brutal in the sequence of events, but the first signs predate 1929. The twentieth century began on an American hegemony, as a result of logistical support and weaponry to the First World War, the United States secured the victory to the Allies. Americans are confident and consume more and more on credit. Corporate earnings soar. The equities rise inexorably. Some Americans are investing billions of dollars in stock, having borrowed from the banks and pledged their homes. After the Dawes Plan in 1924, Germany pays well repairs from 1925 to 1930, and France uses the money to repay the United States. The plan Young of 1929 determines the payments of Germany...