...The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression: A Study in Environmental and Economic Crises. The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression were two significant events in American history that profoundly affected the lives of millions of people. These crises occurred almost simultaneously during the 1930s, intertwining environmental and economic challenges that reshaped the nation. This essay explores the causes, impacts, and interconnections between the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The Great Depression: An Economic Catastrophe The Great Depression was the most severe economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and...
Words: 860 - Pages: 4
...During the Great Depression, farmers and families had to travel away from their home to find work and a new place to live. In 1930s, the Great Plains, had very little rain accompanied by high winds causing a dust storm called the dust bowl. This affected the agriculture in the United States during the 20th century. Both the government and farmers tried to address the situation with farmer loans and smaller crops. The dust bowl lasted 10 long years and it could very well happen again. Overall the Great Depression majorly affected the people in the southern plains. During the 20th century the United States agriculture changed from good to bad. Before the dust bowl the agriculture was successful, there was enough rain and the...
Words: 754 - Pages: 4
...The Dust Bowl was a major sandstorm that was caused by ripping up the grass that held the topsoil down. When this was to happen the winds picked up and caused all the topsoil to go with it causing massive clouds of sand. This Dust Bowl was bad timing because around this time the Great Depression was happening. Another cause of the Dust Bowl was drought, the topsoil was now dry and loose, any wind could pick up and bring the dirt with it. Many farmers were forced to migrate because of all the sand covering everything leaving them with nothing. The Dust Bowl lasted for about a decade it started in the 1930 s and did not end until 1940. This disaster is not natural it was a man made disaster. Farmers ripped up all the roots and grasses holding that soil to plant things,then later did not plant anything due to costs.Then the Great Depression hit and farmers could not pay their loans or keep their farming equipment. The farmers could not pay for equipment they needed which lead to the soil being bare.”The region’s exposed topsoil, robbed of the anchoring, water-retaining roots of its native grasses, was carried off by heavy spring winds.”(Cited from: "Dust Bowl." Britannica School, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15 May. 2007. School. Eb. com /levels/high /article/Dust -Bowl/31604#. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.)...
Words: 538 - Pages: 3
...shockwaves of the Great Depression were not only felt in America, but all across the world. Without the Great Depression, many nations would not have learned what not to do during a time of crisis. The most influential aspects of the Great Recession are unemployment, drought and mass migration. The actions that occurred during the Dust Bowl and the Great Recession are still seen influencing America. The vast amount of unemployment that occurred during the 1930’s was one of the most significant ways the Great Depression influenced America. As the amount of manufactured goods began to go down after the recession, so did the number of jobs, “the response was to lay off workers, [cut paychecks and] reduce production.” (Text...
Words: 794 - Pages: 4
...critical dust storms that damaged the agriculture of the United States. Also known as the dirty thirties, the Dustbowl took place in the 1930’s. Not only did the dustbowl bring economical, ecological and human misery to the United states but, this was all during a time when the US was already suffering under the Great Depression. “A failure to apply dry land farming methods and severe drought to prevent wind erosion caused the phenomenon.” The drought came in different years, 1934, 1936, and 1939 to 1940. Some regions of the high plains went through droughts for up to eight years. But since back then there was insufficient knowledge on “ecology of the plains, farmers conducted extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains during the previous decade; this had displaced the native, deep-rooted grasses that normally trapped soil and moisture even during periods of drought and high winds....
Words: 523 - Pages: 3
...Great Depression The Great Depression had a tremendous effect on the people of this Dark Age in the United States. Throughout these tough times people faced many hardships such as increases in crime, the stock market crash and the Dust Bowl. These events were all results of the Great Depression and also had huge impacts on people’s lives. Beginning of the Great Depression The Depression began in the year 1929 and was a result of the ending of the First World War. The United States was sending aid to Europe in recovery but this resulted in an over extension of credit and spending in the 1920’s. This over extension was a direct cause that led to the “most dramatic economic event in United States history”. No other depression had such a devastating impact on the United States society. Throughout the twelve years of the Great Depression, one quarter of the work force were unemployed, 5,500 banks closed and 32,000 businesses went bankrupt (“Great Depression”). Stock Market Crash On the infamous day known as Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 the stock market crashed. The only thing was that no one was thinking anything could go wrong because a little over a month before the market had reached a 10-year high price. From then on the prices slowly decreased causing confusion, apprehension, and uncertainty began to set into all investors big and small (Galbraith 1). A couple of days before Black Tuesday a day known as Black Thursday was when people really started to notice...
Words: 1167 - Pages: 5
...year is 1930, during the Great Depression. Some of the main reasons why the Depression is so very important, is because without this, we might not have had the incentive to work so hard to make things better afterward. The society of America is amazing, the people that put forth the time and the effort to make a nation thrive, ought to be remembered proudly and courageously. The Great Depression was a time of sadness for our nation, a pedestal, that stood in our way of greatness. Great Depression Causes It started out as people were being run out of jobs, forced to feed their families off of the streets, with only the kindest hearts. This was labeled the Stock Market Crash, which would prove to be a tremendous factor...
Words: 2249 - Pages: 9
...There was dust everywhere, you could barely see breath or do anything without being surrounded by dust. The Dust Bowl was the name given to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States. I'm gonna tell you about how the dust bowl was caused, how it affected the economy, and personal stories about the Dust Bowl. Many immigrants moved from the cities in the northeast to the plains in the midwest where there was available farmland. These immigrants were inexperienced. The demand for wheat caused by World War I encouraged farmers to plow up native grasslands to plant wheat, corn and other crops. At the beginning of the Great Depression, wheat prices fell, so farmers converted more grassland into crop land to try to break even. Major...
Words: 505 - Pages: 3
...Daniel xxxxxxxxx Professor xxxxx History 102 5/17/2015 The Dust Bowl During the 1930’s our country was going through some tough times economically which was known as the “Great Depression”. To make things worse the farmland of America was experiencing what became known as the dust bowl. The Dust Bowl lasted for about a decade and it significantly impacted the southern plains. The northern plains were not hit as hard, but they still experienced major drought, strong winds and saw a big decline in their agricultural industry. The Dust Bowl is also responsible for many Americans leaving and moving from the southern plains. For nearly 10 years a yellowish brown dust from the southern plains and a black wall of dust from the northern plains swept through the heart of our country. This made everyday life in this region extremely difficult. Simple acts such as breathing, eating, and even talking while walking were no longer so simple. Mothers were forced to make their children wear dust mask to and from school, wet sheets were hung in front of windows in an effort to stop the dirt from entering their homes. Many farmers were defeated and slowly watched all their crops blow away (About the Dust Bowl). It was best stated by John Steinbeck in the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” “And then the dispossessed were drawn west from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand...
Words: 1067 - Pages: 5
...Name Professor Course Date The Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl refers to the 1930 period when adverse storms resulted in socio-economic and ecological destruction to the Canadian and American economies. The disaster lasted for six years, from 1930 to 1936, but in some areas, it lasted till 1940. The extent of Dust Bowl’s impacts intensified in North America following the event’s concurrence with the Great American Depression. States affected by the weather adversities included the Canadian South, South Eastern region of Montana, South Western parts of North Dakota, and Texas, North Eastern regions of Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, and major regions of South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The causative factors for the development of the Dust Bowl were attributed to two main factors; drought and famine condition in existing in Central America and poor farming methods on the vast dry lands from the Canadian prairies in the South to the US, acreage of over 400,000 km2 (Langston-George, 2015). Based on Dust Bowl’s historical naure, it is imperative to understand the causes, characteristics, impact and draw future lessons to mitigate such occurrences in the human and physical environment. Characteristics of the Dust Bowl The Dust bowl region lies on the west side of the 100th meridian. The elevation of the plains was estimated to be 760m on the east side and 1800m to the west. The erosion and drought affected a geographical coverage of about 100,000,000acres. The climatic...
Words: 3039 - Pages: 13
...The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression took place in the early 1930s and lasted to the late 1930s or mid 1940s. The Dust Bowl took place around the southwestern Great Plains region of the United States. During this time in history this part of the United States was suffering a huge drought which will cause what is now called the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was mainly caused by the farmers that were growing wheat. This was the reason because the prairie grasses were turned into dry wheat fields which the farms had to plow. Then the wind would start and blow off the top layer of dirt. The winds were so strong that the dust and dirt would come in there homes and cars so there was not a safe place to hide or take shelter. The reason the Dust Bowl happened during the...
Words: 458 - Pages: 2
...The Dust Bowl is an area of land where plants stop growing and soil turns into dust, mainly caused by poor farming techniques. In 1931, the midwestern and southern plains began experiencing severe droughts and crop damages. These crop damages were caused by “black blizzards.” A black blizzard is when the soil dried, then turned to dust and blew to the east and south in large dark clouds. Dust storms were caused by drought and overused land. In some places the dust would drift like snow, covering cities and farms. These dark clouds would leave well sealed homes covered in dust. By 1932, there were fourteen dust storms reported. In 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt became president, he declared a fourday bank holiday. During this time, the Congress...
Words: 919 - Pages: 4
...“The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world” (The Great Depression-History.com 2012). The great depression is said to have begun after the First World War, It was a time of hardship and uncertainty. Although the great depression began in the United States it spread throughout the globe and affected almost every country. It brought about drastic declines in output, severe unemployment, and serious deflation. Many countries such as Britain, Germany and France came out of the war with large debts to pay, this was due to the fact that they had been borrowing from The United States of America, after its entrance into financial crisis the rest of the countries depending on its financing would inevitably enter down turn and face similar crisis. World War 1 also left many industrialized countries weak and in large debts, they needed to finance the rebuilding of their economies and industries that were damaged during the war, this made it harder for them to recover. There are a number of explanations to as what brought about the great depression in 1929. These are structural and monetary weaknesses as well as a number of specific events that enhanced the effects from one country to another and eventually to all major industrialized countries. What Caused the great depression? The depression was also said to have partially started with the crash of the stock market in...
Words: 2819 - Pages: 12
...In the 1930’s, the Great Plains Region was devastated by drought, and at a time when America was already depression ridden. The harse agricultural decline extended the Depression which was felt worldwide. There were many causes for the Dust Bowl, which had profound social, economical, and agricultural impact on America. The Dust Bowl stretched over 50 million acres from western Kansas to eastern Nevada. “The drought is the worst ever in United States history, covering more than 75 percent of the country and affecting 27 states severely” (The Dust 2). “The Dust Bowl resulted from unusually prolonged dryness and heat, coupled with a surge in farming on suboptimal land, using techniques based on a poor understanding of soil ecology.” (Richards 3) In essence, the...
Words: 905 - Pages: 4
...Published in 1979, The Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, was written by Donald Worster. It was written with the intent of persuading the general public that the 1930’s Dust Bowl was galvanized due to the idea of capitalism. This writing is predominantly ineffective as it provides bias information, is a secondary source, and gives inconceivable solutions to these evident environmental problems. The Dirty Thirties, or more commonly known as the Dust Bowl, was a phenomenon during the 1930s. It was the case of many detrimental dust storms that took over the Great Plains and caused much havoc. These dust storms are generally thought of as a part of nature that was caused by high winds and dry soil. Contrary to this popular belief, Donald...
Words: 995 - Pages: 4
