The Great Depression around the world

Grade 10 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Cards A to D. Card A, a summary in our words, written today: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was signed in June 1930. The Holocaust Museum's encyclopedia says it spurred retaliatory tariffs. The State Department's Office of the Historian says scholars disagree over how much it protected American producers and whether it set off foreign retaliation. Card B, a summary in our words, written today: One study finds that the volume of world trade fell 25 percent between 1929 and 1932. A second study says protectionist responses cut world import activity by two-thirds by 1933. The second study's summary does not say whether it counts quantity or money value. Prices of goods also fell sharply in these years. Card C, a summary in our words, written today: Britain left the gold standard in September 1931, and a wave of trade restrictions followed. Historians find that countries that left gold early recovered earlier. The Federal Reserve's history adds that banking panics hit in 1930 and 1931, that the US money supply fell by nearly 30 percent from fall 1930 to winter 1933, and that the Depression hit bottom in March 1933 with a national banking holiday. Card D, an invented example for this sheet, not a real country: Country Q left the gold standard in 1931 and raised its tariffs in 1932. Country R stayed on gold until 1935 and kept its tariffs low. From 1932 to 1934, Q's industrial output rose 15 percent and R's rose 5 percent.

2. 1.

   Card B gives two falls in world trade: 25 percent by 1932 and two-thirds by 1933. Ari says one must be an error. Which reading fits card B best?

   • They match: a 25 percent fall by 1932 grows into two-thirds in 1933 if the trend held
   • The tariff caused the larger figure and the gold standard the smaller, since cards A and C name each
   • They may measure different things over different spans, and falling prices could widen the second fall
   • The 25 percent is the reliable one, since a volume of goods is exact and the other figure is just activity
3. 2.

   Bo says the two-thirds fall "by 1933" shows trade kept falling after 1932. What can card B support?

   • A second study reports a bigger fall by 1933, but different measures cannot show 1933 was worse
   • Trade fell another 42 percent in 1933, found by subtracting 25 percent from two-thirds of the total
   • Nothing, since two figures for different years cannot be placed in the same account of the Depression
   • It shows trade fell further in 1933 than in 1932, since the 1933 figure is the larger of the two
4. 3.

   Card B says prices also fell sharply. Esme asks: if the second study counts money value, why could its fall exceed the volume fall?

   • Value is quantity times price, so when quantity and price both fall, value falls by more than quantity alone
   • Prices fell because tariffs rose, so the larger figure is the tariff's effect and the smaller the gold standard's
   • The first figure covers the whole world and the second just Europe, so the second is larger
   • When prices fall, value falls less than quantity, so the two-thirds must be a quantity that fell more
5. 4.

   Card A says the tariff "became a symbol" of beggar-thy-neighbor policy. Kira treats that as proof of its effects. What is the better use of a symbol?

   • A symbol is chosen because of its effects, so card A already shows the tariff caused the fall in trade
   • It shows how the tariff was later remembered; its effects need trade data like card B's
   • A symbol is just opinion, so card A can be left out of any account of the Depression
   • The symbol shows the tariff had the largest effect of any policy, since symbols mark turning points
6. 5.

   Trade volume fell 25 percent from 1929 to 1932 (card B), and the tariff was signed in June 1930 (card A). Luz asks how much of the fall was the tariff. What can be said?

   • The whole of it came from the gold standard, since card C says it linked economies and trade restrictions followed
   • No part of it, since scholars disagree on retaliation and so there is no link to trade
   • Most of it, since the tariff was signed in June 1930, inside the years of the fall
   • Nothing exact: the cards date the fall and the tariff, but none divides the fall among tariffs, panics and money
7. 6.

   Card C names banking panics, the gold standard and trade restrictions. Milo asks which the cards show as the main cause. What is supported?

   • The gold standard, since card C says leaving it brought earlier recovery, which shows it was the main cause
   • The cards give three linked channels and rank none, so naming a main cause needs evidence they do not give
   • The panics, since the money supply fell by nearly 30 percent, which is the largest number in card C
   • Trade restrictions, since they followed Britain's exit from gold and so were the last step
8. 7.

   Card C says the Depression hit bottom in March 1933 with a banking holiday. Noah says the holiday ended it. What does card C support?

   • That the low point and the holiday coincided; card C does not say the holiday ended the slide
   • Nothing about 1933, since a single month cannot be tied to a banking holiday
   • That recovery began everywhere in 1933, since the American bottom marks the end for each country
   • That the holiday ended the slide, since the bottom came in the very month it began
9. 8.

   Card D: Q left gold and raised tariffs; R stayed on gold. Q's output rose 15 percent and R's 5. Ren says leaving gold caused the gap. How should the claim be tested?

   • Ask what else differed: Q also raised its tariffs, so the gap could reflect tariffs and not gold
   • Accept it, since 15 percent is three times 5 percent, a gap too large for anything else to explain
   • Accept it, since card C already says countries that left gold recovered earlier
   • Reject it, since two countries cannot show anything about gold
10. 9.

    Tala wants to strengthen the claim that leaving gold, not tariffs, explains Q's faster growth. Which added fact would help most?

    • Q's tariff rise in 1932 was larger than R's, since Q's growth then fits its tariff policy
    • Q kept its growth through 1935, since a longer run shows leaving gold had lasting effects
    • Q's output was lower than R's in 1932, since a low start may leave more room for growth
    • Another country that left gold in 1931 without raising tariffs also grew faster than R
11. 10.

    Zee says, "Card C and card D prove that leaving gold ends depressions." Which flaw is most serious?

    • Card D has output figures but no tariff figures, so the claim cannot be tested
    • Card C is a summary written today, so it cannot be used as evidence about the 1930s
    • Card C reports a pattern for early leavers; two cases cannot prove a rule for all depressions
    • The claim ignores that Britain left gold in 1931, which means it applies just to Britain