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Presidency of President Hoover
Herbert Hoover was elected president of the United States a few months before the stock market crashed and the United States went into The Great Depression. The main reason for why the depression hit was because President Hoover refused to interfere with anything that went on, laissez-faire essentially. This impacted the American society because due to his lack of negligence, the country fell into a deep depression. -
Stock Market Crash
"Black Tuesday" or the "Great Crash" are a few names that are used to describe October 29th, 1929, when the stock market crashed. One of the main reasons the market crashed was because there was overproduction and under consumption. This greatly affected the American people because they went into a massive depression in the economy, people lost their jobs which led to them becoming homeless. -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
President Hoover added tariffs on worldwide imported goods. The point of this was to get more people to buy American products, however this did the opposite. This worsen the economic state of the country. -
Bank Failures
The bank failures were happening due to all these banks who had lent a portion of their assets into the stock market. This greatly affected anyone who had invested money into the stock market, because they had lost all their money and they were going to withdraw it from the banks. This caused banks to panic, smaller banks didn't have the resources they needed, so the doors closed. -
Presidency of FDR/New Deal Begins
On March 4th, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt became president of the United States. He introduced the New Deal Program. Which was aimed at bring the economy back up by putting Americans to work. He got rid of the whole laissez-faire thing that Hoover was doing, and was giving Americans jobs that would help bring the economy back up. -
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps were to give young men (typically from the ages 17-23) a job in conservation projects, where they would work on planting trees, building roads/trails, fighting fires, and contributing to bettering the economy. They were treated as if they were in the military, which by the time the U.S. entered WW2, they had many men ready to go. -
Unemployment Peaks
in 1933, unemployment in the United States peaked with 24.9% (12.83 million) of the population being unemployed. This was not good at all because the country was going into a terrible poverty crisis. -
Dust Bowl Migration
The plain states were severely hit with a drought which due to poor land management and high winds led to a dust storm, destroying millions of farms/houses and having the people in these states move. -
Social Security Act
The Social Security Act was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935. This gave blind people, people with disabilities, and dependent children an income to live by. Older people have the ability to retire and still get an income to live by. -
Fair Labor Standards
The Fair Labor Standards Act established federal minimum wage, mandating that overtime work should be paid. It also but huge restrictions on child labor, in order to prevent work place abuse. -
The outbreak of WWII
World War 2 broke after Germany invaded Poland, under Adolf Hitlers rule. This war left a huge mark on the world, labeled as the most destructive war in history. -
U.S. joins WWII
The United States didn't join the war until December 8th, 1941, a day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Prior to this attack, American citizens believed it was best to stay out of this since it didn't involve them, however the public opinion shifted after this.