STANDARD WHII.11b
Global Depression in the 1930’s
Objective
The student will demonstrate knowledge of political, economic, social, and
cultural developments during the Interwar Period by
b) Citing causes and assessing the impact of worldwide depression in the
1930s.
Essential Understandings
A period of uneven prosperity in the decade following World War I (1920s) was
followed by worldwide depression in the 1930s. Depression weakened Western
democracies, making it difficult for them to challenge the threat of
totalitarianism.
Essential Questions
Q1. Why did the world experience depression in the 1930s?
Q2. What political changes resulted from the worldwide depression?
Essential Knowledge
A. Causes of worldwide depression
1. German reparations
2. Expansion of production capacities and dominance of the United States in
the global economy
3. High protective tariffs
4. Excessive expansion of credit
5. Stock Market Crash (1929)
B.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Impact of world depression
High unemployment in industrial countries
Bank failures and collapse of credit
Collapse of prices in world trade
Nazi Party’s growing importance in Germany; Nazi Party’s blame of
European Jews for economic collapse
STANDARD WHII.11b
Global Depression in the 1930’s
Causes of Worldwide Depression
1. German reparations
2. Expansion of production capacities and dominance of the United States in the global
economy
3. High protective tariffs
4. Excessive expansion of credit
5. Stock Market Crash (1929)
Great Depression (291)
1. In ____________________, economic depression spread across the world as the
____________________ ____________________ ____________________ crashed and
____________________ countries struggled to rebuild their damaged postwar
____________________.
2. Both during and after World War I, the ____________________
____________________ lent millions of dollars to other nations and thus became the
____________________ ____________________ of the ____________________.
3. After World War I, nations struggled to repay their ____________________; domestic
policies, especially in the United States, created ____________________ that limited
the economic growth of the ____________________ ____________________.
4. Surpluses in ____________________ and ____________________ led to over
____________________ and falling ____________________.
5. In October 1929, speculation that stocks were being overvalued led to a
____________________ of the market; a ____________________
____________________ ensued as banks in the United States and Europe closed and
millions of individuals were forced into ____________________.
6. The drastic slowdown in ____________________ activity led to tremendous
____________________, and in nations that were already struggling with establishing
new political identities, extreme ____________________ of ____________________
emerged.