Dimitrova Mariya

9a
19th Jan 2018

HOMEWORK
The Great Depression
1.Effects in Britain
The Great Depression began at a time when Britain was still struggling to overcome the impact of
World War I. unfortunately, the country had to survive another crisis.
During the Depression the UK’S world trade dropped to about 50%, and the output of heavy
industries declined by about 30%. Between 1929 and 1932 iron and steel production halved.
There was a need to offset the effects of lower production. Industries opted to cut costs by
reducing the wages of the workforce. British people became unemployed. Many families
depended on local government payment for survival. The Pound was overvalued . The British
government was shaken.
At that time of economic crisis, Britain was ruled by a Labour government. In the 1931 budget,
the chancellor Lord Snowden and Ramsay MacDonald accepted the necessity to implement
budget cuts. Defense was also cut. That coincided with a huge increase in German spending on
weapons. In that hard period the problems about Hitler’s government were forgotten. Soon, the
German air force was close to overtaking in size that of Britain. British generals were pessimistic
about how well Britain could do in a war.
2.Effects in France
The French recovered their self-confidence after WWI as they did manage to defeat their long
lasting enemies, the Germans. But French economy was devastated during WWI and much of its
industrial zone was, for the most of the war, under German control which made imminent
recovery very difficult.
The Depression took longer to have an impact on France because the French economy did not
depend so much on international trade. However, the Great Depression got in France too.
The level of national income decreased. Building weapons was hard because it needed money
that France did not have. Aircraft production fell and compared very badly with output in
Germany. There were many unemployed people such as in Britain.
The French Communist Party rose at that time. Instead of stopping Hitler, French government
stand up to Hitler but in 1933 and 1936 the support stopped because there were deep divisions
between right and left-wing.
3. The most affected country
The Depression hit hardest those nations that were close to US and their economy depended on
international trade.
In Europe economic impact of the Depression was huge. German factories were only producing
about 60% of the usual output. The income of German farmers fell by about a half between 1928
and 1932.
The government in Germany was in trouble because many German politicians were unhappy with
the Democracy. Many army officers and civil servants dislike the rule of parliament and wanted
to stop ruling of it. During those problems Adolf Hitler found a way to the Parliament seats. In
1928 Hitler’s party won 12 seats. An unemployment rose in Germany there was an increase in
street violent between Nazi and communists. On 30th January 1933 Hitler became Chancellor.
That was a huge mistake that Germans would pay later.
The Depression isolated each country to look after its economy and problems so Germany was
left alone. That brought the dramatical end of Democracy and started the ruling of Hitler. His
views were accessible. However, Germans chose him. In difficult times people look at parties
with different views.
Germany was most affected because the dictatorship of Hitler would last in the History forever
with his sadistic approach to the rest of the world who were not ‘humans’.

Sources
Pettinger, T. (n.d.). The UK economy in the 1930s. Retrieved 1 19, 2018, from
http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/7483/economics/the-uk-economy-in-the-1930s/