How the Great Depression has affected countries worldwide

The Great Depression is the largest and longest economic downturn in modern history. It began in 1929 and lasted until 1933. The Great Depression first occurred in the United States. However, it caused severe declines in industrial output, unemployment, and deflation in most countries over the world.
This video will show how the Great Depression affected economies and countries worldwide and the policies that governments used to help their countries escape the economic disaster.
► The United States and the cause of the Great Depression
The U.S. stock market boomed in 1920 and peaked in 1929. Then it began to plummet in price. The company's share value dropped 40% in just one month, and it has impacted people's spending.
Fortunes were lost on that gloomy day in October 1929, and fear of financial instability spread throughout the United States and the rest of the world.
Factories and other businesses slowed down production and began firing their workers. For those who were lucky enough to remain employed, wages fell and buying power decreased.
At the height of the Depression in 1932, one-third of Americans were unemployed. The stock market hit its all-time low. Thousands of banks had closed their doors.
All these problems combined, interconnected with one another, and caused a Great Depression.

What the U.S. government did during the Great Depression:
- Raised tariffs
- Got rid of something called the gold standard.
- Printed extra money
- Solved the banking crisis
► Latin American region and the Great Depression
The Latin American area mainly produced primary goods, then sold them to the United States and Europe. When the crisis occurred:
- The prices of Latin American goods fell between 50 and 66 percent between 1928 and 1932.
- Unemployment and poverty increased throughout Latin America.
- The problem worsened when the U.S. and European countries raised tariffs on foreign goods.
To solve these problems, the governments of Latin countries have implemented three policies:
- They tried to get prices under control.
- Got off the gold standard, and printed more money, but unlike the U.S., that made the exports cheaper.
- Invested in new types of industries
► Europe and the Great Depression
Europe in the 1920s focused on recovery after the first World War. When the Great Depression hit, Europe faced many of the same problems as the U.S.:
- Stock prices lost a large part of their value
- Businesses went bankrupt
- Unemployment
- Many products dropped in price
- Europe also faces a banking crisis. However, unlike the U.S., European countries each have a few large banks.
What did European nations do to solve these issues?
- Many governments took ownership of the large bank to solve the banking crisis.
- They increased taxes and reduced spending in a policy called austerity to repay debt. They hoped investors would invest in Europe again.
- Some countries removed tariffs between each other.
- They got rid of the gold standards, printed a bunch of money, and then spent that money on public work programs for the poor and the unemployed.
► Africa and the Great Depression
When the Great Depression occurred, agricultural prices fell, and they could no longer pay taxes. That forced many Africans to leave their land and work at low wages in European mines and plantations. Poverty is getting worse.
To solve these issues, some African colonies decided to raise taxes; Other African colonies produced a lot more of those goods to make up for it.
► Asia and the Great Depression
When the Great Depression hit, those crops dropped in price. The Asian population could no longer earn enough money to pay their taxes. So they were evicted from their homes, which caused peasant uprisings, unemployment, and poverty in the region. To make matters worse, when European nations enacted trade barriers, Asian colonies and nations found it more difficult to trade with each other. Central Asian countries like India and China had different ways of overcoming the crisis.

► Japan and the Great Depression
During the Great Depression, Japan did everything right and recovered quickly:
- Abandoned the gold standard
- Printed more money and devalued the Japanese yen; That made Japanese goods cheaper and fueled the growth
- Invested in new industries, particularly heavy industry

Timestamps

0:00 – intro
1:25 – The United States and the cause of the Great Depression
10:15 – American policy did during the Great Depression
14:40 – Africa in the Great Depression
16: 40 – What did the Latin governments do to solve these issues
21:15 – Europe in the Great Depression
24:30 – What did European nations do to solve these issues
29: 20 – Africa in the Great Depression
31:25 – What did African governments do to solve these issues
35:09 – Australia and New Zealand
35:48 – Asia and the Great Depression
39:50 – Japan

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