The Depression Years on the Canadian Prairies - Causes and Effects

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,0, University of Bonn, course: 'The History of the Canadian Pairie West', language: English, abstract: On October 29, 1929, the New York stock market collapsed. Within a couple of days, thousands of people had lost their life savings and were destitute. The “Black Friday” affected almost the whole world. What followed was later referred to as theThe Great Depression, The Depression Years or even The Ten Lost Years.The period ended with the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. It was a decade of despair, anger and broken dreams. This essay will give a glimpse into what happened during those years, especially on the Prairie Provinces Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I will try to explain why those years were so hard particularly for the people living on the Western Provinces. I will not only present facts about what happened and how it could happen but also how people tried to deal with it and made the best out of their situation. Thus, this essay is also based on recordings of men, women and children who had to face the Depression Years. Apart from the introduction, this essay is divided into two parts: Section A explains how the Great Depression could emerge, and describes it in terms of politics and economics. Section B focuses on how people were affected by the Depression. What exactly did the families and individuals suffer from? How did they try to manage their situation? How did the Great Depression make an impact on the people’s self-esteem in terms of hope, despair, anger and self-abandonment? These questions will be discussed in the second part of this essay.