1. Discuss the world economic conditions that led up to the Depression.

How did
the political leaders react? Did their actions help?

The Great Depression was a huge worldwide economic decline that left many people
homeless, starving, and without work. It sent prices plummeting and it severely crippled world
trade. It was caused mainly due to the large amount of borrowing and debt that took place
directly after World War One. Money that governments didn’t actually have got spent and it
resulted in a huge lack of confidence in the markets and created severe inflation. On October
29, 1929 the New York stock market, the center for almost all of the global trade collapsed,
crashing America’s economy. When this happened it dragged down the rest of the world’s
economies, as most of the money being borrowed in Europe was from the US. Political
leaders quickly reacted to the situation, although most of them made it worse. Herbert Hoover
(the president of the United States) enacted steep import and export tariffs, called the Smoot-
Hawley tariffs. This made it so the rest of the world raised their tariffs in retribution, nearly
destroying world trade. Some of the countries that were hit the hardest ended up turning to
dictators and nationalist leaders like Hitler and Prime Minister Tojo.
The Great Depression was largely due to the large debt incurred by almost all of the
European countries after World War I. Countries like England and France had to pay huge
sums of money in order to repair their desecrated cities and towns. Even harder hit were the
countries of the Central Powers, as they not only had to pay to repair their own wartime scars,
but they were also forced to pay reparations to the Allies, and they were forced to pay this at a
staggering rate. They were unable to meet these steep demands not only because they were
in a state of crisis from having just lost the war, but there was also a shortage of laborers and
factories in which the remaining ones could work in because a large portion of the men had
been killed and the factories destroyed. Countries like Germany and Austria were forced to
borrow huge sums of money from America, and countries like France and England had to
borrow money from the US too. Because of all of this borrowing the American banks became
overdrawn and money was floating all around Europe but it was in a sense, worthless. In
addition to this, America was at an all time high in production, producing large quantities of
products at a wartime pace. This was a huge problem because none of the other countries
could afford any of these products, nor did they have an interest in them anymore because the
war had ended. That meant that there was a large surplus of products but no one wanting to
buy them, domestically or worldwide. Factories began to shut down and people began to lose
confidence in the market system. They began to withdraw money and stocks, and on October
29, the stock market lost all of its support and the market crashed. The US dragged down the
rest of the world’s markets and pretty soon industrialization and production came to a grinding
halt.
The political leaders knew they had to react fast, but they did so poorly and even made
the situation worse. Herbert Hoover (the president of the United States) enacted steep import
and export tariffs, called the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. This made it so the rest of the world raised
their tariffs in retribution, nearly destroying world trade. France and England managed to
struggle through the Depression mostly intact because they were able to force their colonies to
buy their products, allowing them to keep productivity up. Countries who relied heavily on
foreign exports and imports suffered the worse though, and they began to fall from democracy
into powerful dictatorships, which would later play a role in WWII. These nationalist leaders
promised peace and posterity, and the starving masses of population were willing to put them
in power just so they could recover. Farmers and fisherman suffered the most out of all the
industries as their salaries plummeted, because the world needed food at lower prices. Many
leaders were unable to solve the problem of the Depression until Franklin D. Roosevelt
stepped in and enacted the New Deal plan, which would help stimulate the economy and bring
it back on track.
2. Compare and contrast the environmental impacts of the Depression and the
Second World War.

The environmental impacts of the Depression and WWII were greatly varied; in
fact they were almost complete opposites. During the Depression production came to a
grinding halt, stopping completely in some regions and slowing down severely in others.
This eased any impact on the environment and it was allowed to recover during this time
period. During WWII, the situation was completely opposite. Production and industry was
soaring as the demand for war products and weapons sky rocked. The war itself changed
the landscape as well, scarring it and created desecration everywhere it touched.
After WWI America was at an all time high in production, producing large quantities of
products at a wartime pace. This was a huge problem because none of the other countries
could afford any of these products, nor did they have an interest in them anymore because the
war had ended. That meant that there was a large surplus of products but no one wanting to
buy them, domestically or worldwide. Factories began to shut down and that meant that the
demand for raw materials dropped drastically. The environment was allowed to recover during
this time period there was very little impact on it.
The Second World War had the opposite impact as the Depression did. Where the
Depression had little negative effect on the environment, WWII had an enormous negative
impact on the environment. Industries and factories opened again and started producing
products in wartime fervor. Raw materials were stripped from the land in order to support this
production and this often desecrated the land. The war itself also destroyed the environment.
Tanks and motorized machines produced masses of smog and smoke, and they often tore up
the land when traveling. Planes dropped bombs that annihilated anything below, dramatically
damaging the landscape. One big example of this was the atomic bombs, which carved a
huge circle of destruction where dropped and left it inhabitable for generations. Battlefields
became scars in the landscape, as the weapons used like mines, flamethrowers, chemical
weapons, and grenades stripped the land. Dead bodies and broken equipment littered the
land, and the unused munitions made it unsafe to go in and start the repairing process.