The Impact of the Great Depression of 1929 in Latin America

Author(s):  
Michael J. LaRosa ◽  
Germán R. Mejía
2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 1039-1040

David S. C. Chu of Institute for Defense Analyses reviews “The Great Depression in Latin America”, by Paulo Drinot and Alan Knight. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Ten papers examine the consequences of the Great Depression in Latin America in terms of the role of the state, party-political competition, and the formation of working-class and other social and political movements, and consider how regional transformations interacted with, and differed from, global processes. Papers discuss the impact of the Great Depression on Argentine society (Roy Hora); Chilean workers and the Great Depression, 1930–38 (Angela Vergara); change with continuity—Brazil from 1930 to 1945 (Joel Wolfe); the Great Depression in Peru (Paulo Drinot and Carlos Contreras); export protectionism and the Great Depression—multinational corporations, domestic elite, and export policies in Colombia (Marcelo Bucheli and Luis Felipe Sáenz); political transition in an age of extremes—Venezuela in the 1930s (Doug Yarrington); indigenista dictators and the problematic origins of democracy in Central America (Jeffrey L. Gould); the character and consequences of the Great Depression in Mexico (Alan Knight); Cuba—depression, imperialism, and revolution, 1920–40 (Gillian McGillivray); and the Great Depression in Latin America—an overview (Knight). Drinot is Senior Lecturer in Latin American History with the Institute of the Americas at University College London. Knight is Professor of the History of Latin America at the University of Oxford.”


Author(s):  
Cristian Paúl Naranjo Navas ◽  
Andrés David Naranjo Navas ◽  
Alegría Cumandá Navas Labanda

<p><strong>Abstract </strong></p><p>This investigation started with an inquiry: did the Great Depression impact Latin America similarly? Does the case of Ecuador represent a point of dissimilarity? Ecuador does represent an atypical case in the region. The data presented in this study shows that the impact of the Great Depression in Latin America was uneven: while the region declined sharply from 1929 to 1932, and since 1933 it registers signs of accelerated growth, Ecuador remained stagnant throughout the decade studied.</p><p>However, the development of some macroeconomic data are similar in the entire region because of the close commercial links with the United States of America. The evolution of foreign trade and public finances were similar: a profound reduction until 1932-1933, and then a quick recovery.</p><p>Finally, the Great Depression represents a break point in Latin American: the growth of the region passes from depending on the external trade to a development that focused on the ingrowth.</p>


1992 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen H. Haber

This article employs previously unused accounting data and manuscript censuses to determine the impact of the Great Depression on Brazil's most important cotton textile manufacturers. It argues that the Great Depression, when viewed at the level of the individual business enterprise, had far more serious consequences than the previous literature, which relied on aggregate statistical data, suggests. The analysis presented here leads to the conclusion that Brazil's major cotton firms were in serious trouble prior to the 1929 Crash and that they took longer to recover than most other studies of Brazilian industrialization have indicated.


Author(s):  
Patricia O'Brien

This chapter explores the immediate aftermath of the Black Saturday Massacre through the experiences of Ta’isi. Though New Zealand forces tried to stop the Mau through exiling Ta’isi and then the killing Tupua Tamasese (which may have been intended or not) the Mau continued to disrupt New Zealand’s rule. The Women’s Mau, in which Rosabel played a prominent role, also came to the fore in 1930. Administrator Allen enraged these women, Ta’isi and Sāmoans generally, when he wrote in the annual report to the League of Nations that these women were of ‘light moral character’. The crisis of the Great Depression began to impact Sāmoa and for Ta’isi personally; his enforced absence from Sāmoa began to bite into his business operations. This chapter explores the New Zealand’s part in continuing attempts to publically damage Ta’isi’s status amongst Sāmoans. It also explores the impact on Ta’isi and the Mau with the death of Sir Māui Pōmare, who had been Samoa’s staunchest supporter.


Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow

This chapter examines how Kansas experienced a long slide from being the “kernel of the country” to becoming a mere outpost far from the centers of national economic and political influence—a shift that was rooted in economic and demographic changes, but was primarily a matter of cultural redefinition. On those rare occasions in the nineteenth century when the Kansas Republican Party lost power, it regrouped and made a comeback in the next electoral cycle. The chapter first considers how the influence of Republicans and Methodists peaked in 1924, a banner year for the Kansas economy, before discussing the consolidation and further expansion of Kansas churches. It then describes the separation of church and state, along with the rise of fundamentalism and the impact of the Great Depression on Kansas churches. It also explores the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 and the emergence of smaller political and religious movements in Kansas.


Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith

This chapter examines the impact of the Great Depression on classical economic ideas. When the Great Depression struck after the stock market crash of October 1929, economists in the classical tradition such as Joseph Schumpeter and Lionel Robbins chose to do nothing. They argued that the depression must be allowed to run its course. The chapter first considers U.S. economic policy under Franklin D. Roosevelt, focusing on how he addressed three visible features of the depression: deflation in prices, unemployment, and the hardship depression suffered by especially vulnerable groups. It also discusses the views of two scholars who belonged to the group known as the Roosevelt Brains Trust (later the Brain Trust), Rexford Guy Tugwell and Adolf A. Berle Jr. Finally, it explores how depression and price deflation led to two efforts to raise prices, one through the National Recovery Act and the other through agriculture.


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