The Great Depression

During the First World War there was a great demand of different articles/goods. As a result many factories established which began to manufacture different things day and night at breakneck speed. After World War end demands decreased but production at high speed continues and cause glut in market. The exports had fallen and the home market could not absorb all those products. As a result the unsold stock of goods began to pile in 1930s the lack of buyers ruined industrailist and the farming community. Thus USA caught in a severe economic crisis.
As a result the American capitalist stopped all loans to the European countries thus halting all production there.
The sudden stoppage of American captialist caused an uprecdented economic crisis there.
The Defeat of Germany in the First World War had already runied it and its industry so Germany became an easy victim of the economic crisis.
Last but not least , the labour saving machines and the abundances of agricultural products was also responsible for the economic depression in Europe.

The Great Depression had far reaching effects on U.S.A., Europe and other parts of the world.

The economic depression led to the deterioration of the economic conditions of the capitalist countries of Europe and the U.S.A.
There was a great fall in the industrial production as the demand for goods of all types also fell, men were laid off and factories closed. The industrial production in 1933 was only half the 1929 level.
Unemployment soared very high and world unemployment doubled. There were 5 to 10 crores of unemployed persons in the world. The number of unemployed persons stood round 14 million in the U.S.A. alone.
There was a great fall in the living standard of the people in all parts of the world.
The economic depression resulted in poverty. Many people became poor and led a miserable life and began to die of hunger.
Agricultural prices fell disastrously in many countries.
The results of this depression in Italy and Germany were insecurity, unemployment, poverty, frustration, panic and discontentment. This led to the rise of Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany. Democratic Party came to power in U.S.A. under the leadership of Roosevelt It adopted the policy of New Deal’ to overcome the evil effects of the economic depression and to provide jobs to the people and to improve the condition of the workers.
The New Deal of Roosevelt in America and the economic nationalism of Britain necessitated state control.

Great Depression of 1929-1933 too had a far reaching affect on the Indian economy:

The Great Depression adversely affected the Indian trade. India’s exports and importwere nearly halved between 1929 and 1934.
The Jute producers of Bengal were hardly hit by this depression. The price of raw jute fell by 60% and with a result, the jute growers fell under debt deeper and deeper.
Farmers and peasants suffered the most as compared to city dwellers. Though the prices fell, the British Government refused to reduce their various demands.
Starting of the Civil Disobedience Movement by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 was the direct result of this Great Depression because then rural India was seething with unrest.