Topic+A-3+Summarize+the+causes+of+the+Great+Depression+and+explain+how+the+United+States+and+Europe+reacted+to+the+Depression

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== toc =__The Causes and Reactions of The Great Depression__=

= = = = =media type="custom" key="9412638"= =__**Give two events that led to the Stock Market Crash of 1929: Explain these in the 2 bullets below:**__=


 * First, there was an extremely uneven distribution of wealth in the United States which helped lead to the Stock Market Crash. There were a few wealthy business owners who were making tons of money. Their factories created tons of products and eventually started over producing. But in 1929 most of the population in the U.S. made less than $2,000 per year, so then they could not buy all of the products that the companies made. The big businesses started losing money so they started firing workers. So even more people had less money and fewer products were bought, and this led to more people being fired. This cycle kept continuing and soon so many people didn't have jobs that almost no products were bought from the companies.


 * Second, there was a huge overproduction of food in the United States. American farmers were producing lots of food plus there was foreign food being shipped in from Australian farmers. Because there was so much food the prices of it eventually went down. Since the prices went down the farmers weren't making as much money as they used to be making. Therefore they had to take more loans from the banks to pay their debts for the farms. Because the farmers had no money they couldn't pay back the bank loans and the banks lost money too. This closed down many banks and the people with money invested in them lost all of it. This led to millions of Americans losing money and helped lead the the Stock Market Crash.



=**__List and explain three problems of The Weimer Consititution that categorized it as a weak democracy:__**=
 * First the Weimar Republic had serious weaknesses from the beginning. During the war Germany suffered from an enormous amount of economic problems and they carried over after the war. Unlike many other countries Germany did not raise their taxes during war times and just kept printing money, which later led to major amounts of debt. Especially after Germany's loss the money they had printed during the war lost its value. With Germany’s lost they were presented with many reparations payments to the Allied countries. The debt just slowly started to pile up for the Weimar Republic. Many citiz[[image:hyperinflation.jpg width="140" height="163" align="left"]]ens started questioning their government.
 * Second the Weimar Republic became the scapegoat all of Germany’s problems. After the war there were many Political parties who were not blamed for any of the postwar problems. None of the wartime leaders were blamed for any of the wartime troubles. The Weimar Republic was also blamed for the war defeat and the postwar humiliation from the Treaty of Versailles.
 * Third Germany was in a economical struggle, their land was destroyed, and they were lacking resources. The Germans could not afford to go to war with another country so, they tried to make peace with the neighboring countrys. Gustav Stresemann the foreign minister of Germany and Aristide Briand try to make peace between the countries. In 1925, the ministers met in Locarno Switzerland along with other officials from Belgium, Italy, and Britain. They all signed a treaty promising peace between France and Germany. Also, the treaty made each country respect the others border.

media type="custom" key="9370002" = __**What were Britain, France, U.S., and Germany’s reaction to the Great Depression?**__ =


 * __Germany -__** Germany faced enormous economic problems that had begun during the war. Germany had not greatly increased wartime taxes. They recovered from the 1923 inflation thanks to the international committee. The Dawes plan, was a plan that provided 200 million dollars to stabilize German currency and strengthen economy. This plan helped show inflation. By 1929, everything was back to normal.


 * __U.S. -__** The stock market crashed and one fourth of American workers were unemployed. American investors withdrew their money from Europe. The U.S. congress placed high tariffs on imported goods so that American dollars would stay in the U.S. This backfired at the U.S. The conditions worsened for the United States. Other countries did the same and unemployment rates soared throughout the world.


 * __France -__** Since many political leaders were frightened by the growth of antidemocratic forces both in France and other parts of Europe, moderates, socialists, and communists formed a coalition.


 * __Britain -__** Britain voters elected a multiparty coalition known as the National Government. It passed high protective tariffs, increased taxes, and regulated the currency. It also lowered interest rates. This brought about a slow but steady recovery.



__**What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?**__
media type="custom" key="9412706"
 * The main event that marked the beginning of the Great Depression was the 1929 stock market crash. There were many events that led up to this economic disaster. The owners of the factories were making lots of money. American factories were creating and distributing nearly half of the world's industrial goods by 1929.


 * For the factories in the US business was booming and the owners were making tons of money. The only problem with this new wealth is that it was not distributed equally. The richest 5% of the population received 33% of all of the personal income in 1929. Over half of all Americans earned less than 2,000 dollars in 1929.


 * Wall street was the financial capital of the world, this caused optimism to soar. This caused stocks to soar and less wealthy investors borrowed money to buy stocks. Everyone sold their stocks which caused the market to collapse. Businesses failed and the banks went bankrupt and closed. 9 million people lost their life savings. By 1933 a quarter of all Americans were jobless.


 * The collapse of the US economy sent shock waves through the world. Congress put a tax on imported goods so US dollars would stay here. Other countries that depended on exporting goods so US dollars would stay in the country. Every country had to raise taxes therefore causing world trade to drop 65%. France was more self sufficient than most other countries but by 1935 there was over one million unemployed French citizens.

__ **Citations** __
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code Nelson, Cary. "The Great Depression." ////Modern American Poetry////. Cary Nelson, Apr. 2011. Web. 1 May code

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code Beck, Roger, et al. ////Modern World History////. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal Littel, 2007. Print. code

code Taylor, Nick. "The Great Depression." ////www.nytimes.com////. N.p., 2008. Web. 12 May 2011. code

code         index.html>. code

code "The Stock Market Crash of 1929." ////The Money Alert////. N.p., 12 May 2010. Web. 11 May 2011. code