United States and the Great Depression

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Introduction

In 1918, the United-States go out strengthened by the war. Situated in the camp of the winners, the country did not undergo the dramatic destructions of a part of Europe and the human losses are limited. USA even acquired an excellent military scale. The maritime business peaked and New York supplanted London in the financial business. Most of the European countries are put into debt: the Americans demand the repayment of the ten billion lent dollars. However the American Senate refuses to participate in League of Nations and so renews with the intentions of the isolationism.

As in Europe, years 1919-1920 are difficult in the United States: it is necessary to reconvert the war economy and to face the inflation. The end of the State Planned Economy set up in 1917 and the rise of the trade unionism provoke numerous strikes in all the country. In 1919, 4.1 million strikers who demand better salaries and a reduction of working hours were listed. They often degenerated in a violent way and confrontations took place in several big cities, as in Boston. Year 1920 is marked by numerous anarchistic attacks.

However it was during the 1920s that the United States experienced a period of economic prosperity. The latter was responsible for what we later called the Great Depression. It was necessary to wait for the arrival of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the institution of New Deal to notice the beginning of a very slow economic evolution.

1) The American prosperity of the postwar.

i) Signs of prosperity

1) United States become the first economic power in the world.

a) Financially speaking, Wall Street replaces the London Stock Exchange as the first financial center.

b) From 1922 there is strong economic growth, symbolized by businessmen, and the powerful “Trusts”.

2) A new era began: the second industrial revolution.

a)