The Age of Anxiety & The Great Depression 1920’s & 1930’s

The Age of Anxiety The time period after WWI has been marked as the age of anxiety or uncertainty The war had changed people and Europe was now different. People were anxious and questioned the meaning of life. – Scientists, writers, artists and musicians challenged the most deeply rooted ideas that people had about themselves, the world, and religion. Existentialism: (Nietzsche) believed people focused too much on reason and should follow instinct Dadaism: (Dali) Artistic movement that reflected the meaninglessness of the world after the war. Nonsensical objects reflected in art

The Great Depression The US stock market crashed in October, 1929 & triggered a world wide depression. The stock market boom that had existed in the years prior was built on borrowed money. – Stock: a piece of a company that can be bought – “buying on margin” – paying only a small amount for a stock – Many people would “buy on margin” and when the prices started falling in 1929, many owed their stock brokers lots of money… so they started selling stocks.

Continued…. As panic set in and more people sold, stock value declined Those who had their savings tied up in stocks lost everything People started buying less, production fell, unemployment rose

World Wide Crisis The US financial crisis affected many other nations world wide US banks had loaned money to European countries – Once the panic had struck, US banks recalled loans – Lots of gold from reserves in Europe left the banks creating an economic decline – World production fell 38%

Why Did it Last so Long? 1. No international economic leadership 2. Poor national economic policy in almost every country

Unemployment High unemployment in just about every country No money to buy goods-14 million out of work Poverty rose and the threat of public revolts was a real fear

New Deal Franklin Roosevelt was elected president of the US in 1932 with promises of change and a “New Deal.” “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” FDR did not favor socialism or govt. owned industry to help the US, but believed that the govt. should plan the economy like during WWI

Continued… The US went off the gold standard – Means US $ was not backed by gold – Purpose: devalue the US dollar, inflate the price of goods, increase tariffs on goods Through various acts, FDR targeted unemployment by creating government jobs and aide for farming. – Limited production of farm goods= “law of supply and demand” Social services created: social security, old age pensions, welfare, unemployment benefits All of these attempts at recovery never fully brought the US out of the depression- WWII did!

Responses to the Depression in Europe Scandinavian Countries: – Social Democrats focused on cooperative community action. Govt. paid for many social services=high taxes Britian: – Went off the gold standard and isolated themselves. Focused on building autos, appliances, lowering interest rates

Continued… France: – Due to late industrialization, the depression hit France late. – Unstable govt. left many without faith in democracy and turned to radical political groups. – Communists, Socialists and other radicals unified against the Fascists and were known as the Popular Front. Fought for social and economic changes. – Popular Front eventually split due to internal issues and the threat of civil war.

What’s Germany up to? Although affected by the depression the greatest, many Germans were frustrated by the weak and ineffective Weimar Republic. Ideas from the new Nazi political party and its leader, Adolf Hitler, was very appealing. – He promised change and made good on those promises – Began industry through rearmament-breaking the Treaty of Versailles