The Great Depression

In 1929, a stock market crash severely affected the United States economy, destroying banks, people's finances, and businesses (3). On a day known as "Black Tuesday," many of the United States major industries and their most successful companies plummeted in value and their stocks became nearly worthless compared to their original valuation. This crash was the main factor in the cause of the Great Depression.

During the Great Depression, many unemployed American residents began moving around the country and westward in search for new opportunities in order to survive and provide for their families. Farmers were hit very hard by droughts and began losing a lot of money, trigging another western migration into states such as California. Some of these states where people began to migrate had to put plans in place in order to secure jobs for their residents who did not recently migrate there, showing how bad the job market was at this time.

Herbert Hoover was the President of the United States leading up to the Great Depression and when the Great Depression began. Hoover was a republican who wanted to increase the United States success and protect American businesses from other nations. Hoover's way of doing this was increasing international tariffs, which would go on to be a major reason to why the international trade market collapsed (7). With many people in the United States out of money and tariffs so high, American businesses began to fail.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president of the United States during the height of the Great Depression (9). He served a record three terms as President of the United States and became the man that dragged the United States out of the Great Depression. FDR used World War II as a way to help drive up production in the United States, in turn, this helped create jobs and start an upward movement in terms of the United States well-being.