The cause of the great depression

In 1929 the Wall street stock market crashed causing millions of dollars to be lost.  This started the Great Depression and the decade called the 'Dirty thirties'.  Due to the crash investors started to sell their stocks for very cheap, prices had fallen 50%.  Thousands of people had invested money into the stock market and when it crashed it left these people with next to no money with no food and families to feed.  People became so desperate they began stealing food just to be able to feed their families, many people turned to family members, churches and private charities for any help they could get.  People were hit so hard because they didn't see it coming the decline of the market was so immediate and so fast it was such a surprise to many leaving people poor and no where to turn.  Many men had left their families to go to government funded work camps to do hard manual labour to next to no money but it was better than nothing. Once World War Two began the economy started to increase, jobs in factories to support the war were created and enlisting to the war paid good money.  It took people years to start to regain their money and possessions they lost as well as recover from the devastation of  World War Two.