The Economic And Social Problems Of The

1930S Essay, Research Paper

The economic and social problems of the 1930’s may have led to the start of World War 2. I have some reasons why explained below.

A name for the 1930’s could be called the Dirty Thirties because there was a great loss of rain in the states causing drought and there for crops could not be grown.

The downfall of the stock market had greatly decreased the New York stock exchange and with the great downfall it caused prices to raise from $110 to $455 over a period of 7 months. The prices dropped greatly because nobody would by from stockholders. The downfall of the stock market also caused many attempted deaths and suicide throughout the crowd. The decrease only hurt the people that gambled their money into the stock market.

Unemployment also greatly decreased when the market crashed. The time period was called the Great Depression. The unemployment rate grew from 3.2% to 25% in 3 years.

The Depression happened during 1929 and 1932 where manufacturing goods fell 38%. International trade decreased greatly between countries fell 65%. The figure may not be exact but is pretty close; it also depends with one country compared to another.

France and Britain struggled to rebuild after the World War but were able to keep their democratic government. The economy was rescued when the National Government came in and settled the currency with taxes. France, unlike Britain, took the depression harder because it was a farming country. France was less depended on foreign trade. In 1935 1 million people were out of work because of the drought in France. The depression also hurt schools because the children were unable to go to school because teachers reported that children had no shoes to go this caused many teachers to quit and they were out jobs. College graduated found it hard to find jobs and usually ended up with low wage jobs.

Unemployed workers were angry and frustrated from no work, as a result of this people lost their faith in the government. A new political movement called “Fascism” which emphasized autocratic and nationalist policies.

An Italian officer by the name of Benito Mussolini said

“Fascism was not the nursing of a doctrine worked out before hand with detailed

Elaboration it was born of the need for action.”

The fascists shared ideas of nationalism with each other. The fascists were lazy people they didn’t serve their nation and they would not work they would let other people do that. They would not talk normal citizens they would rather talk to other fascists. They believed that the country must struggle and fend for itself by other people. The fascists were led usually by one person.

The fascist would have a special uniform that is of certain colors and used special salutes most of these people also held rallies.

The fascists were similar to communism even though they were enemies. Communism and Fascism both denied individual rights insisted on supremacy and both scorned democracies. However they also had their differences. Communism claimed dictatorship of the workers. Fascism was openly nationalistic while communists were internationalists hoping to unite workers in all countries

While Fascism was going of Germany became a toleration state. Hitler composed a series of laws that banned political parties except the Nazis. The Gestapo’s or the German Nazi secret police arrested the people that tried to oppose the Nazi rule. Hitler used a special secret police force of his own called the SS, which murdered several hundred of Hitler’s opponents. The German Nazi’s gained immense control over the economy. The Nazi’s made and banned many laws. They also banned strikes and labor unions. When the unemployment was very high Hitler put people to work in factories, highways, construction and manufacturing weapons. When Hitler did this he dropped the unemployment from a blistering 6 million people to a very low of 1.5 million people that were able to work.

To control the culture Hitler wanted to make Germany have the same interest such as the press, broadcasting, literature, drama, music, painting, partying and films. The people that failed or missed one of his rallies could listen to it on radio. Books had to be confirmed before they were put out on the shelves, and if any other books that were not were burned. Hitler also loved operas so he would broadcast them over the radio very often.

The economic and social problems of the 1930’s greatly decrease the economy which allowed Hitler into power, with if this didn’t happened the government might have been able to prevent World War 2.