Political Responses To The Great Depression

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The Great Depression contributed to economic sufferings that led to the outbreak of World War II. The stock market crashed in the United States in October of 1929, and in turn caused the global economy to collapse. Financial instability led to the decline of production in many countries. Unemployment was widespread, and it was directly linked to the need for large-scale government spending. Many countries were negatively impacted by the depression, and in turn had various political responses that followed. These countries included: Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, and Scandinavia.
Each country experienced different impacts from the depression, which directly impacted the political responses that would follow.
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In many places, this resulted in the people supporting radical attempts that would deal with the crisis, whether this was putting Democratic leaders in place or looking for a dictator to lead their country out of the depression. The leaders of the country influenced the political responses of the countries to the depression. Great Britain abandoned the gold standard and concentrated on their national market rather than the international market. In the United States, Franklin Roosevelt enacted the New Deal, as well as the WPA (Works Progress Administration), which created over a hundred new federal agencies. A national social security system was also enacted. In Germany, the voters were promised economic, political, and international salvation if they voted for Hitler. He became a dictator, then put the enabling act in place, and turned the country toward Nazism. This led to racial homogeneity, persecution (of Jews Slavs gypsies Jehovah Witnesses Communists and homosexuals), and what became known as Hitler 's Final Solution, however, it did leave the country towards economic recovery. Mussolini, the leader of Italy, shifted the nation towards fascism, and put repressive measures in place. He focused on gaining personal power. He made the Lateran agreement, showing Pope supported Mussolini. A popular front formed, which was meant to follow the example of the New Deal, so social and economic reforms were enacted and social welfare benefits were increased. The popular front collapsed due to divide among the Italian government. Japan began to invade and occupy large parts of China to power industrial growth. They were the quickest to recover, due to quick action of the civilian democratic government, but their military leader toppled over the civilian authorities. The French turned against their parliamentary democracy, and instead some looked to

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