Introduction
When we talk about the Great Depression, we always think of the United States of America and the impact on the rest of the advanced industrialised countries. In fact, most studies on this topic have been concentrating on these countries as they are regarded as the major victims of the Great Depression; the global impact has hardly attracted any attention, especially for the case of Southeast Asia.
The subordination of Southeast Asia’s economy to the capitalist structure of the western world through colonialism greatly increased its significance in the global economy and saw the transformation of a subsistent to commercial economy. However, the exceptionally rapid and at times reckless expansion of economic growth also has its disadvantage which was to expose Southeast Asia to the vulnerability of experiencing fluctuations of the international market (Tarling(ed)(1992: 192). This became evident during the Great depression.
Even with products such as rice, sugar and rubber which are so well received on the world market, this did not lessen the region’s vulnerability. To put it bluntly, the economic prosperity of the region depends entirely on the purchasing power of the industrialized nations, notably the United States.
On a macro level, the Great Depression had devastating short and long term effects on the region during the late 1920s and early 1930s. However, as we look closely on a micro level, the impacts are not generally the same throughout Southeast Asia, they differ accordingly. A dichotomy will be used to compare the different impacts of the Great Depression has had on differing countries; differing experiences of cities and rural areas and last but not least, the different social classes. Long term ...
... middle of paper ...
...reliminary Reexamination, Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 995-1205.
* Boomgaard, P. and Brown, I. (ed.), 2000, Weathering The Storm: The Economies of Southeast Asia in the 1930s Depression (Singapore: ISEAS).
M. Adas, The Burma Delta
* Brown, I., Colonial Economy in Crisis: Burma's rice cultivators and the world depression of the 1930s (London and New York: Routledge & Curzon, 2005). (BORROWED)
*Fernando, M.R., “The worst of both worlds: Commercial rice production in West Indramayu, 1885–1935”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 41, No. 3, 2010, pp. 421-448.
*Doeppers, D.F., 1991 “Metropolitan Manila in the Great Depression: Crisis for Whom?”, Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 511-535.
Lim Teck Ghee, Peasants and their Agricultural Economy in Colonial Malaya 1874-1941 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 180-224.
Pindar, Ian. "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes." The Guardian, August 9, 2009.
Nelson, Sheila. Crisis at Home and Abroad: the Great Depression, World War II, and Beyond,
"America's Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal."DPLA. Digital Public Library of America. Web. 20 Nov 2013. .
During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the “Big Boom” and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the depression, many Americans spoke their minds through pen and paper. Many criticized Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the Roosevelts’ efforts. Each opinion about the causes and solutions of the Great Depression are based upon economic, racial and social standing in America.
The Great Depression America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine covers many topics of American history during the "Great Depression" through 1941. The topic that I have selected to compare to the text of American, Past and Present, written by Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Frederickson and R. Hal Williams, is Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first president of the United States and America's president during the horrible "Great Depression".
Watkins, T.H.. The Great Depression: America in the 1930s. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1993.
Levine, Linda. “The Labor Market During the Great Depression and the Current Recession”. 19 June 2009. 6 March 2010. < http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40655_20090619.pdf>.
Great Depression was one of the most severe economic situation the world had ever seen. It all started during late 1929 and lasted till 1939. Although, the origin of depression was United Sattes but with US Economy being highly correlated with global economy, the ill efffects were seen in the whole world with high unemployment, low production and deflation. Overall it was the most severe depression ever faced by western industrialized world. Stock Market Crashes, Bank Failures and a lot more, left the governments ineffective and this lead the global economy to what we call today- ‘’Great Depression’’.(Rockoff). As for the cause and what lead to Great Depression, the issue is still in debate among eminent economists, but the crux provides evidence that the worst ever depression ever expereinced by Global Economy stemed from multiple causes which are as follows:
The depression mostly affected industrial countries such as USA and United Kingdom, and caused the increase in unemployment. Also, construction sector almost stopped, the price of agricultural products declined markable, and the farmers and rural people were affected adversely. The mining was also the most affected sector due to unexpected decline in demand.
The Great Depression not only affected the United States but the world in general. In my estimation some the reasons for the depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920’s and the debts not paid back from WWI.
The Effect of the Great Depression on National and Individual Morale The Great Depression of the 1930’s was an era of hopelessness and fear for many. Coming soon after the prosperous Coolidge era, the Depression affected a nation of people who had based their self esteem around their ability to work and provide well for their families (Clements, page 67 - 69). Individuals and families had to contend not only with an existence that pushed people close to suicide and starvation, but a total loss of self worth and the haunting memories of the cars, radios and relatively luxurious lives they would have led five years previously.
McElvaine, Robert S. The Depression and New Deal: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.
The US government’s role in the Great Depression has been very controversy. Different hypothesizes argued differently on the causes of the Great depression and whether the New Deal introduced by the government and President Roosevelt helped United States got out of the depression. I would argue that even though not the only factor, the US government did lead the country into the Great Depression and the New Deal actually delayed the recovery process. I will discuss five different factors (stock market crash, bank failure, tariff and tax cut, consumer spending and agriculture) that are commonly accepted to cause the depression and how the government linked to them. Furthermore, I will try to show how the government prolonged the depression in the United States by introducing the New Deal.
"Great Depression in the United States." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001. CD-ROM. 2001 ed. Microsoft Corporation. 2001
The Great Depression was a major depression after World War 2. It began in the 1930s and ended in the late 1930s or mid 1940s. The Great Depression had horrible effects on wealthy and poverty-stricken countries. International trade went down 50%, while personal income , tax revenue, profits and prices dropped. Cities with heavy industry were pounded by the effects of the Great Depression. Farms and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by 60%. Most economies recovered in the mid 1930s but some didn’t recover till after World War 2.