The Great Depression and the Treaty of Versailles - Social Studies

The Great Depression began in the 1929s and originated in the United states, which spread worldwide. The Great Depression then ended in 1939 being the longest and most severe depression to those of the western world that they have experienced. The great depression was caused by the stock market crash. Panic brewed in wall street causing the wipe out of millions of investors. During The Great Depression Germany had suffered tremendously. Due to the cost of loans that they were required to pay, Germany's economy collapsed. Consequences of this were a drastic rise in unemployment, which was extremely difficult on the citizens of Germany. Factories were shut down and farms were majorly affected during the great depression. Germany spent many, many years paying off the loans. As the treaty didn’t only state that Germany was responsible for WW1, therefore pinning all the blame on them it had also demanded that Germany cover the financial compensation of it entirely. To cover the finance that had been demanded in the treaty Germany had to pay 132 billion gold mark which today would round up to 33 billion Us dollars.     

When Germany signed the treaty of Versaille they didn’t have a choice, If they had not signed the treaty then Germany would be overcome and they would no longer have that as their country. They were limited to what and how much of their resources they were able to use and lost nearly all power they had over their home. Their armies were reduced from 6 million to 100 thousand and they lost the ability to use submarines, military aircraft and artillery. They had not participated in the war and had strongly believed that the war should not have happened and that they should not have to sign the treaty. Germany was to take all responsibility for the war and admit that it was their fault to make peace and because of the boundaries of which have been enforced, Germany did not have much choice but to agree therefore that is what they did.

The effects of the crash were not as noticeable and did not affect New Zealand much till the 1930, from there on the export prices dropped rapidly. By 1933 the rapid drop in export prices had dropped by 45% throughout that time. By then the country had become quite overwhelmed and reliant on agriculture exports. Unemployment had gone up by 12% by the end of 1930 because of the demands urban business and manufacturers were getting for their goods and services, along with the prices. Those who did have a job, their wages had been cut by an average of 20%. Within the first 6 months in 1932 unemployment increased in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch. The government attempted to fix the unemployment rates by giving men jobs that require travel of long distances for only a small amount of pay.