The Great Depression: The Effects on America and the World The Great Depression occurred between the years of late 1929 and 1939. The effects of it, which originated here in the United States, were felt worldwide. Financial downfalls were occurring. Prices of stock fell nearly as much as 40% and over 9000 banks went out of business or were shut down. As much as 9 million savings accounts were wiped out. The Great Depression also caused disturbance in the business sector. About 86,000 businesses failed and wages were decreased by an average of 60%. The unemployment rate went from a mere 9% all the way up to 25% and approximately 15 million people lost their jobs.
Many factors played a role in bringing about the depression however; a main cause for the Great Depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920's, and the extensive stock market plan of buying on the margin.
Mussolini (left) and Hitler sent their armies to N...
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English: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoo...Money was distributed disoriented between the rich and the middle-class, between industry and agriculture within the United States, and between the U.S. and Europe. This imbalance of wealth created an unstable economy. This eventually led to the stock market crashing, on October 24, 1929, also known as "Black Thursday"ÃÂ. Not only did the US alone feel the effects of the Depression, international nations began to have problems. It led to a sharp decrease in world trade as each country tried to protect their own industries and products by raising tariffs on imported goods. In Germany, poor economic conditions led to the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. The Japanese invaded China, developing industries and mines for the natural resources in Manchuria. Japan claimed this economic growth would relieve the depression.
This militarism of the Germans and Japanese eventually led to World...