The Global Dimensions of The Great Depression and World War 2 for the United States
World War II was an event in history that forever changed the fundamental way we live today. Before the war, the United States was in the middle of the Great Depression but by the end, we came out on top as a world dominant force with the military power that no other country could challenge. We were the wealthiest country in the world and used our power in the coming years to further our own political agendas. We became the police of the world. The United States, despite suffering great losses, was able to use the war as a way to better our country and attempt to better the rest of the world.
Before World War II, the US economy was a disaster. During the 1920s, also called the Roaring 1920s, the economy expanded at a rapid pace. In a few short years the country’s total wealth more than doubled (Amadeo 2017). The stock market became the center of the economy. Everyone from millionaire businessman to the local school janitor had their life savings poured into stocks. By 1929 the stock market had reached its peak. An economic bubble was created because of slowing production and wages starting to decline. The feeling of exuberance and invincibility created by the roaring 20’s disappeared almost overnight. On October 29, 1929, the bubble finally burst; this day is known in history as Black Tuesday. Black Tuesday was the fourth and final day of the stock market crash of 1929. By the end of Black Tuesday, the DOW had dropped 25 points and investors had lost over 30 billion dollars. That was 10 times more than the Federal Budget for 1929 and more than the United States spent on World War I (Amadeo 2017). Over the next several years investment and consumer spending dropped. Industrial output sharply declined. Soon millions of employees were laid off when businesses could no longer afford to pay their employees and as a result, unemployment swept the nation. Banks went bankrupt because of loans were given out that were lost in the stock market. Banks that did not collapse along with the stock market also suffered. Bank runs—when people would go withdraw all the money in their account in cash because they felt it was not safe—became increasingly popular and often put banks out of business. Very quickly, banks would run out of money and would be forced to close. People that were not fast enough to get their cash, lost it all.
Things continued to get worse throughout the 1930s. Unemployment began steadily rising at almost 5% per year and peaked in 1933 at almost 25% of the population (“United States History). People in cities had no purchasing power because they had all lost their jobs when the market crashed. Farmers had excess crop that they couldn’t sell because people in the cities, where food was the most demanded, could not even afford the crops. Bread lines became the only way to get food, and often times people would be waiting in line for hours at a time just to find out that there was no food at all. The United States economy was in turmoil and needed to be fixed fast. Herbert Hoover, the president at the time, refused to acknowledge that the economy was in real trouble until it was too late. Even after the crash of the stock market, Hoover played down the severity of the economy’s hardships. Hoovervilles, nicknamed after the president, sprung up around the nation. They were shantytowns built by the people seeking shelter under cardboard boxes because they had lost their homes. Some of the policies that Hoover introduced became key components for relief in the years to come. However, Hoover was held back by his conservative political philosophy. Hoover felt that excess government involvement was a threat to capitalism and individualism (history.com Staff 2009). His political philosophy led him to veto several bills that could have given relief to struggling Americans. Americans were desperate for change and help. Public approval for Hoover fell and as a new election ensued, the American public made a change. In 1933, during the next presidential election, Hoover lost to the man that would be the ruler of the free world for the next 12 years. Franklin D Roosevelt defeated Hoover by a landslide, receiving 472 electoral votes to Hoovers mere 59. Franklin D Roosevelt, otherwise known as FDR, was a major player in not just the economy’s recovery, but America’s involvement in World War II. He inspired a newfound confidence from the American people during his inaugural speech and entered office with a plan that showed he was not afraid to take bold action to fix our nation's problems. FDR called his plan to bring the US out-out of the depression the New Deal. The first action was taken his first day in office when he declared a four day bank holiday to pause the effect of bank runs. Three days later, during his first fireside chat, he urged the American public to put their money back into banks. By the end of the month, almost three-quarters of the banks that were failing or on the verge of collapse were back in business. Many policies were enacted to help stimulate the struggling economy and help it get onto its feet. In “the first 100 days” of his administration, a term that FDR later coined himself, 15 major laws were passed with the goal of relieving the depression. On March 31st, 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was passed into law. It was designed as a way to put young unskilled men to work, by giving them basic conservation jobs. These men were paid $30 a month but were required to send $22 to $25 of what they made back home to their families. Workers did things like plant trees, fought forest fires, and implemented erosion control. By July 1st over 300,000 men had been put to work (“New Deal” 2009). In 1935 enrollment peaked over 500,000 American men found work in the CCC. Over its lifespan, the CCC is estimated to have employed over 3 million men, which was about five percent of the total male population in the United States at the time (“New Deal” 2009). Several other first 100 day policies made their way to the American public. Agricultural Adjustment Administration was established to help control crop production and stabilize prices. The “second new deal” started in the spring on 1935 when the Works Progress Administration was started. It was created to put unemployed people to work, in lieu of any skills they did or did not have. Since it the WPA was not allowed to compete with private enterprises they focused on building schools, roads, bridges, post offices and parks (“New Deal” 2009). Millions of Americans participated in building projects around the nation. In August, FDR signed the Social Security Act which guaranteed pensions, unemployment checks, and that the federal government would help care for dependent children and the disabled (“New Deal” 2009). Despite FDR's best attempts to kickstart the economy, his programs fell short and America was still struggling. Something needed to happen, and happen fast.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Hitler was starting his mission towards world domination. So far he had been successful in his goals. He had defied the treaty of Versailles and began to mobilize his army. Shortly after had taken back the Rhineland and soon would occupy the Sudetenland. As the master manipulator that Hitler was, he was able to secure vast amounts of land and build up his army with little opposition from Western European powers. Hitler was given these leeways because many felt Germany had been punished too harshly after World War I. In September of 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, defying his non-aggression pact made with Stalin earlier that year. As a result, both France and Great Britain declared war on Germany, officially starting World War II. As the war was beginning in Europe, unemployment in the US was down but not anywhere near pre-depression rates. By 1941 war had been waging in Europe for 2 years and the U
S remained neutral.
The course of not just American, but world history was forever altered on December 7th, 1941. Japan launched its offensive against the US by attacking Pearl Harbor. The next day, President Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress and asked for a declaration of war, Congress voted 388-1 in favor of war. Four days after Pearl Harbor war was also declared against Germany and Italy, putting the US in a two-theater war. In the Pacific, Japan had already taken over extreme amounts of open water and occupied several major islands. In Europe, Hitler had taken over France and had pushed Stalin's army deep into Russia. The United States entry into the war was a turning point. United States forces were a key component in the invasion on D-Day and essential in the effort of liberating France and the rest of Europe. In the Pacific the US was responsible for defeating Japan at the battle of Midway, using their Island hopping campaign and superior navy to push back the Japanese.
US involvement in the war was not only a turning point in the war itself but represented a major shift in the US economy that would shape the rest of the 20th century and beyond. The war gave the extra boost to the economy that FDR could not do with the New Deal alone. The economic theory developed by John Maynard Keynes explains why World War II ended the depression. The theory states that, when aggregate demand goes up, production must also increase leading to decreased unemployment, all things needed to end an economic recession (clasroom.synonym.com). When the United States entered World War II, that is exactly what happened. Between 1940 and 1942, US government spending nearly quadrupled (classroom.synonym.com). Unemployment dropped nearly 5% from 1940 to 1941, because not only of the draft taking place putting millions of men into the military but also because of the mass amounts of women that started working in factories making war good that were essential to US success. New industries created by the the war also helped fuel the recovery of the economy. The aerospace industry saw a huge jump in production; before the war the entire US military had 28 airfields, by the end of the war there were over 1,000 (PBS). Normal consumer goods like cars were put on the back burner while goods more essential to the war effort became a priority. Planes, tanks, bullets, ships, rifles, and bombs were all produced at an incredible rate. In 1941, over three million cars were produced, only 139 were made over the course of the entire war. B-24 bombers were an excellent example of how factories like the Ford factory in Michigan switched over to military production when the war started. The Ford factory was so efficient in making planes that a new B-24 rolled off the assembly line every 63 minutes (PBS). Factories throughout the nation were transformed into military equipment makers which employed millions of people and provided the output needed to sustain our advancing war effort. The US put more ships on the water in 1941 than Japan did throughout the course of the war. In 1944 the US produced more planes than Japan did in the entire war (classroom.synonym.com). At the wars end the US was responsible for more than half of the entire worlds industrial production (“Post War Economy”).
The way World War II ended also had lasting impacts on the US economy and its relations across the world. In 1945 the allied forces were closing in on the Germans, who had little fight left in them. Hitler had committed suicide to escape capture. With little leadership left on May 7th, 1945, the remaining German army surrendered unconditionally, which is now known as VE-Day and marks the end of the war in the European Theater. But war was still in full swing in the Pacific. In August of 1945, the world would again change forever. The newly elected Harry Truman was gearing up for the invasion of Japan when a new technology being secretly developed by the US was finally finished. The Manhattan project, was a top secret project with the goal of making the next age of warfare, the atom bomb. When Truman came into office he had an opportunity to end the war with the drop of these bombs knowing that it would kill thousands of innocent civilians. Truman took this opportunity and on August 6th the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. When the Japanese did not surrender, a second bomb was dropped 3 days later on the city of Nagasaki. On September 2nd, 1945 Japan agreed to surrender. The signing of the treaty took place on the USS Missouri, which had been damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor but was repaired and served throughout the course of the war.
Although the US solved one problem by using the atomic bomb to end the war, it created a whole set of problems. The use of the atomic bombs was a shock to the whole world, especially the rest of the Allied powers who were all gearing up for an invasion of Japan. Although the US and Russia fought alongside each other in World War II, it was more due to their common enemy than any likeness towards each other. After the bombs were dropped, Stalin took special offense to the un-warned used of nuclear weapons. Stalin felt that the US dropped the Atomic bombs as a show of force and so that the US could receive all of the credit for ending the war in the Pacific. Many historians cite the dropping of the atomic bombs as the beginning of a new war, The Cold War. The struggle for world power between the United States and the newly formed U.S.S.R lasted for nearly 50 years. Both countries wanted to be the strongest country on the planet and there was no room for both. Although little actual blood was ever drawn, both countries endured battles were often the political and meant to show their superiority. These included things like the Space Race. Originally won by the U.S.S.R., it was ultimately won by the US when we reached the moon in 1969 and is considered one of the great victories of the Cold War.
The end of World War II, and the beginning of the Cold War, also started the United States strong anti-communism stance. In the Cold War, the enemy was not a certain person or even the U.S.S.R, but the idea of Communism. In the years after the war, the US took several steps to prevent the rest of Europe from falling to Communism. The Marshall plan, enacted in 1948 was an economic aid program that helped countries in Europe rebuild after World War II. The US gave over 13 billion dollars in aid to countries trying to rebuild. They did this not only to help our allies but to make Communism seem less appealing to the people of Europe who were suffering after the end of the war. This was the beginning of America’s role as the “world’s police.” In decades after World War II, America would act against communism again in both the Korean and the Vietnam wars. Both were fought in remote places in the world that Americans had never even heard of, but the government insisted that they were essential to the well being of the world. The United State’s stance was if these countries were to fall to communism, they could pose serious threats to the nation’s well being. Not just because those countries would pose a direct threat to the US but because of the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory is how the US theorized that communism would grow, if one country fell soon all of the surrounding countries would also. As the richest and most powerful country in the world, the US felt that it was their duty to protect those who could not protect themselves.
Finally, the lasting impacts on the economy did not just end after the increase in production during the war. The economy was finally back on its feet and experienced phenomenal growth. The end of the war retuned prosperity to the nation and solidified the US as the wealthiest country in the world. Between 1940 and 1950 the United States GDP jumped almost 100 billion dollars and by 1950 the US’s GDP was over 500 billion dollars (“Post War Economy”). This newfound prosperity also lifted the spirits of the count
ry, and the 1950s are often reflected on as something of a “golden age” for America.
World War II had a lasting impact on the world and the United States for many reasons. Many lives were lost in the name of justice over evil. However, it also had long lasting impacts on the country and shaped America’s future for the rest of the 20th Century. World War II revitalized an economy crippled by the Great Depression. Not only did it revive industry and decrease unemployment during and after the war, but it made the US one of the most prosperous nations in the world. It also had a big impact on the US' role in international relations. After World War II, the US fully abandoned isolationism and acted as the world’s police. Finally, it ushered in another conflict that truly affects the United States even to this day, the Cold War. Without World War II the US could be on a very different trajectory as a country than it is today. World War II fundamentally changed the country we live in in almost every single way.