This definitions covers Key Terms within Causes of the Depression for GCSE History. Revise Causes of the Depression in America 1920-1973 for GCSE History with 10 exam-style questions and 5 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. It is section 9 of 14 in this topic. Make sure you can use the exact wording confidently, because definition marks are often lost through vague language.
Topic position
Section 9 of 14
Practice
10 questions
Recall
5 flashcards
📖 Key Terms
- Speculation
- Buying shares (or other assets) hoping their price will rise so you can sell at a profit — without caring about the underlying value of the company. In the late 1920s, millions of Americans borrowed money to speculate on the stock market, assuming prices would always rise.
- Overproduction
- When factories produce more goods than consumers can buy. During the 1920s boom, American industry expanded enormously but wages didn't rise fast enough for workers to buy everything being made. Unsold goods piled up, forcing factories to cut production and lay off workers.
- Wall Street Crash
- The collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. "Black Thursday" (24 October) saw panic selling begin; "Black Tuesday" (29 October) saw total collapse. Around $30 billion in share value was wiped out within weeks. It was the trigger — not the cause — of the Great Depression.
- Black Tuesday
- 29 October 1929 — the worst single day of the Wall Street Crash. Share prices collapsed completely as everyone tried to sell at once. Fortunes were wiped out within hours.
- Hooverville
- A shantytown of makeshift shelters built by unemployed Americans who had lost their homes during the Depression. Named mockingly after President Hoover, who was blamed for doing nothing to help. They appeared in cities across America from 1930 onwards.
- Dust Bowl
- A severe drought in the Great Plains during the 1930s that turned farmland into desert. Combined with the Depression, it forced hundreds of thousands of farming families (often called "Okies") to migrate west to California in search of work.
- Rugged individualism
- President Hoover's philosophy that Americans should look after themselves without government handouts. He believed that direct relief from the government would destroy people's self-reliance and make them dependent on the state. This approach was catastrophic during the Depression when millions genuinely could not help themselves.