Bust–The Great Depression (AQA GCSE History: The Period Study (Paper 1: Section A)): Flashcards

A banking crisis is a situation where many banks fail or collapse, often due to people withdrawing their money in panic and banks being unable to recover loans, causing widespread financial instability.

Industrial production in the US fell by 45% between 1929 and 1932.

Car production fell by 80% after the Wall Street Crash.

True.

Over 100,000 businesses went bankrupt due to the Wall Street Crash's impact on the economy.

"Hobos" were people who travelled across the USA during the Great Depression looking for work, often riding trains illegally and living with little or no resources.

Around 25% (14 million people) of US citizens were unemployed after the Wall Street Crash.

Due to tariffs on US goods, farmers could not sell to overseas markets.

Farmers lost their land because they could not afford loan payments after incomes fell and interest rates rose between 1929 and 1932.

Overproduction means that industry and agriculture produced more goods than could be sold, leading to falling prices and factory closures.

One short-term cause of the Great Depression was the Wall Street Crash, which led to a collapse in the stock market and reduced spending.

The US government followed a laissez-faire policy, meaning they did not interfere much in the economy.

A Hooverville was a collection of temporary slum housing made from materials like cardboard and corrugated iron, built by homeless people during the Great Depression. The name was a criticism of President Hoover's response to the crisis.

Many state governments went bankrupt because the level of support needed for unemployed and poor people was so high that it exhausted their resources.

Unemployment in the USA rose from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933.

False.

The USA had no social security system in the 1920s, so unemployed people received little or no government support.

Many people suffered from malnutrition or even starvation due to a lack of food.

Workers who kept their jobs still struggled because employers reduced their wages and increased their working hours, knowing they could easily replace workers who refused these conditions.

The Dust Bowl was a period in the 1930s when severe drought and windstorms hit the Great Plains, causing massive soil erosion and making farming nearly impossible.

Farmers in the Midwest faced a decrease in soil fertility and a higher chance of soil erosion, especially during the Dust Bowl drought of 1930.

Many farmers in the Great Plains abandoned their farms because they could not afford their mortgage repayments.

False.

Migrant farm workers were often housed in unhygienic camps where disease spread quickly, and they faced discrimination from local workers.

Sharecropping is a system where farmers, often African-Americans in the southern USA, farmed land owned by someone else and gave a share of their crops as rent.

African-American and immigrant workers found it harder to find employment due to discrimination. Immigrants were often the first to be fired and sometimes deported, while African-Americans faced high unemployment and fewer job opportunities.

In 1930, President Hoover reduced immigration to the USA because he did not want more unemployed workers.

Hoover believed that the government should have minimal interference in the economy and that people should resolve their own problems without too much help from the government.

In 1930, Hoover cut taxes but this did not have a big enough impact on the US people.

The Garner-Wagner Relief Bill was a proposed law in 1932 that would have used government money to create public jobs during the Great Depression, but was blocked by President Hoover.

False.

Hoover's actions were seen as too little and too late, and he did very little to help the economy or US people at first.

The Bonus Marchers were a group of 20,000 former First World War soldiers who marched to Washington in 1932 demanding early payment of their war pensions.

President Hoover used tear gas and tanks to remove the Bonus Army from Washington.

A Hooverville was a makeshift camp built by homeless people during the Great Depression, named after President Hoover, such as the one created by the Bonus Army in Washington, D.C.

Hoover's use of force against the Bonus Army shocked many Americans and made him even more unpopular, as it appeared he did not care about veterans or ordinary people.

The actions of the Bonus Army made the USA look politically unstable, with some groups willing to stage a revolution against the government.

Roosevelt promised a ‘New Deal’ to resolve the Depression by creating government schemes for jobs, reviving industry and farming, and providing help to the poor and unemployed.

Roosevelt was an excellent orator who travelled 20,000km by train making speeches and connecting with people across the USA.

Roosevelt’s experience of becoming disabled after polio made people believe he understood suffering and could relate to ordinary Americans’ struggles during the Depression.

A landslide victory is when one candidate or party wins an election by a very large margin, such as Roosevelt's win over Hoover in 1932.

Roosevelt won the US presidential election by a landslide over Hoover in 1932.