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The Great Depression

ICSE · Class 11 · History

Quick revision notes for The Great Depression — ICSE Class 11 History. Key concepts, formulas, and definitions for last-minute revision.

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Key Topics to Revise

1

America Before the Crash: The Republican Era (1921–1933)

  • After World War I, the USA returned to isolationism – the policy of staying away from international affairs.
  • President Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) lost popularity after the Paris Peace Conference and failed to get the Senate to approve joining the League of Nations. He was paralysed and defeated in the 1920 el
  • Three Republican Presidents ruled the USA from 1921 to 1933: Warren G. Harding (1921–23), Calvin Coolidge (1923–29), and Herbert Hoover (1929–33).
2

Causes and Consequences of the Wall Street Crash (1929)

  • The Wall Street Crash occurred in October 1929 when stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed catastrophically.
  • CAUSE 1 – Over-production: American businesses kept producing goods assuming wartime demand would continue, but European countries became self-sufficient after WWI. American market shrank.
  • CAUSE 2 – Stock Market Speculation: People invested life savings in shares whose prices were artificially high and far above real value. When prices collapsed, the entire economy toppled.
3

Roosevelt's New Deal (1933–1938)

  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was a Democrat who won the 1932 Presidential election, defeating Hoover.
  • FDR was born in 1882 in New York. He suffered from polio but showed enormous energy and vision. He was the ONLY American President elected for FOUR consecutive terms (1933–1945).
  • His famous reassuring quote: 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.'
4

Impact of the Great Depression on Germany

  • After the Treaty of Versailles (1919), a new democratic government came to power in Germany. The National Assembly met at Weimar (not Berlin, which was still unstable), giving the name 'Weimar Republi
  • The Weimar Republic was unpopular from the start because it had accepted the humiliating Treaty of Versailles. Germans never forgave it for this.
  • Germany faced severe economic problems: huge war expenditure left it near bankruptcy, and reparation payments made things worse. French occupation of the Ruhr industrial area and Germany's policy of p

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Key Concepts

The sudden and catastrophic collapsePresidents HardingMultiple interconnected factors caused the depressionRoosevelt's New Deal was a comprehensiveConservative politicians and judges opposed

Frequently Asked Questions

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