Question

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1. What terrible government policies made the Great Depression worse in Germany and the United States?

Answer 1

A lack of international coordination appears to have been the key factor in turning national economic difficulties into worldwide depression as most governments and financial institutions turned inward. Great Britain, which had long underpinned the global financial system and led the return to the gold standard, was unable to play its former position and in 1931 was the first to lower the standard. Concerned with their own economic difficulties, the United States did not step in to replace Great Britain as last resort creditor and dropped the gold standard in 1933.

Leaders of the world's major economies met at the London Economic Conference in 1933 to address the economic crisis but failed to achieve any significant consensus agreements. The Downturn dragged on for the remainder of the 1930s.

The deprression caused the US to retreat further into its isolationism after World War I. During the 1930s, a series of international incidents occurred in the Japanese seizure of northeastern China in 1931, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, and German expansionism in Central and Eastern Europe but the United States did not take any major action in response or opposition. When these and other incidents occurred, the Government of the United States issued statements of disapproval but took limited action afterwards

During the 1930s, the Great Depression caused the U.S. government to withdraw from major international involvement but in the long run it contributed to the emergence of the U.S. as a world leader afterwards. The perception that the turn in somewhat contributed to the perpetuation of World War II horrors caused U.S. foreign policymakers to play a major role in post-war world affairs in order to avert similar catastrophes.