Great Depression

Severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939, marked by high unemployment, bank and business failures, and drastic drops in industrial production and international trade. The contagion began with the October 1929 Wall Street crash; by 1933 US unemployment had risen to 25 percent and 9,000 of 25,000 American banks had failed, while in Germany unemployment neared 30 percent, fueling extremism and Hitler's 1933 rise to power. Recovery varied by country, and the outbreak of World War II in 1939 ended the Depression.