Interwar years · 1929-1939

1929: the crash and the Great Depression

In October 1929 share prices on Wall Street crashed. Within three years factories, banks and farms failed around the world, and millions lost their jobs. Students follow the crisis from New York to Berlin and Brazil, and compare how governments responded.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1930
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In October 1929 share prices on Wall Street crashed. Within three years factories, banks and farms failed around the world, and millions lost their jobs. Students follow the crisis from New York to Berlin and Brazil, and compare how governments responded.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain what happened on Wall Street in October 1929.
  • Describe how the crisis spread from the United States to Europe and the rest of the world.
  • Compare two responses to the Depression, such as the New Deal and the rise of extremist parties.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1930

Where it began

Open the map in 1930 and find New York on the east coast of the United States. Ask the atlas: "What happened on Wall Street in October 1929?"

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1930

The Dust Bowl

Move to the southern Great Plains, around Oklahoma and Kansas. Turn on Weather of History and look for droughts in the 1930s. Why did so many farm families here leave for California?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1930

A world crisis

Zoom out to see the world in 1930. Find Germany, Britain, Brazil and the Dutch East Indies. Which of them sold mostly raw materials such as coffee, rubber or sugar? Why did falling prices hurt them badly?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why did so many Americans buy shares with borrowed money in the 1920s?
  2. How could a crash in New York cost a factory worker in Germany his job?
  3. Around one in four American workers had no job in 1933. What would that mean for a family?
  4. Roosevelt's New Deal used government money to create jobs. Was that the right answer? Why?
  5. In Germany the crisis helped Hitler's party grow. Why do hard times make extreme ideas popular?
4

Game round

10 min

No ruler in Rule History lived in the 1930s. Play one round as Abraham Lincoln, the closest in time, and steer a country through a crisis. Then compare your choices with those of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933: what would you have done about jobs and banks?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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