Economic Threats To Australia From The 1930's

In 1945, after World War II had finished, Australia finally felt at peace – that was until Communism began to have an effect on the entire world. Australia had a lot to fear, with the threat likely to infiltrate the country both domestically (an established Communist Party) and internationally (a geographical location close to countries that had already fallen victim to communism, such as China and Korea). Australia responded to both of these threats in a way that caused a lot of political controversy and has created bonds with other parts of the world that are still activated today.

In August 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, an immense wave of support flooded Britain from her ally, Australia. All Australian political parties, community leaders, newspapers and churches were on-board with this major movement to help the mother country. All believed it was a morally right and necessary commitment . World War I, 1914 – 1918 had a significant and long lasting impact on the Australian home front. ‘The civilian population ’ had to undergo many changes to cater for the war. At this time women’s push for a larger role in the war effort caused a significant and long lasting impact on the Australian home front, which has helped shape workplace gender equality today. Conscription also impacted the Australian home front, meaning, compulsory enlistment of people in military service. As well as the massive impact on Australia’s economy from the many trading cancellations through abandoned or cut off allies, which has helped build Australia’s economy to what it is today.

During 1942 Australia faced very bad times, following Japan’s sudden entry into the Second World War in December 1941. There was a rapid advance of Japanese forces through Asia and the Pacific.

World War Two saw many successful battles for Australia. In 1942, Australia’s foreign policy was changed so that Australian soldiers were only sent between the 110th and 159th meridians (Britannica, 2015). This restricted them to only battles against the Japanese, fighting for their nation’s wellbeing. These battles played a huge role in the destruction of the Japanese forces. Australia played a secondary role in the battle of Kokoda Trail, after America (Britannica, 2015). Conflicts such as this impacted Australia’s national identity

     The Great Depression was a huge economic downfall in North America and involved many other industrialized countries of the world. The Depression began in 1929 and lasted for about ten years. Millions of people lost their jobs along with many businesses going bankrupt. The common misconception of the Great Depression is people think that the stock market crash was the main cause for it. There were many causes for the Depression; unequal distribution of money during the 1920’s was the main cause of the Depression. This unequal distribution happened on many different classes of people. The imbalance of money is what created such an unstable economy. The stock market was doing much worse than people thought

The great impact of changes in Australia’s economy during world war one caused a great mix of emotions. In the effect of Australia’s government cancelling existing trade agreements with Germany and Austria-Hungary one of the earliest impacts of the war started to occur. The life of an Australian worker became very difficult as Australian firms in industries such as steel-making and pharmaceuticals were found having to take up contracts German rivals previously been filled and fortunes were suddenly available to firms such as BHP and Nicholas. A series of ‘War loans’ and then ‘Peace loans’ were used by the common-wealth to finance the war.

Over one million Australians were involved in World War 2. The war effort came from women and men alike, serving interstate and internationally. At the end of this war, there were 40,000 dead and more than 30,000 taken as prisoners of war. This was the first time in history that Australia's mainland had come under direct attack. The war was a catastrophic global conflict which did have a significant impact on Australians. World War 2 started in 1939, with the German invasion of Poland, and ended in 1945, by Japan being bombed by the USA. The two main sides in the fight were the Axis powers which were the countries Germany, Italy and Japan and the Allies which featured USA, France, Britain and consequently Australia. The role of women,

Australia suffered significantly during the Great Depression of the late 1920s. Australia was one of the worst effected countries in the World. This essay will look at why Australia lead the world into Depression in the late 1920s and why it suffered from it's effects for so long. A depression is defined as "A period of drastic decline in a national or international economy, characterized by decreasing business activity, falling prices, and unemployment." 1 During a depression money becomes limited which in turn leads to businesses going bankrupt and causing workers to lose their jobs. This usually leads to a downward

The great Depression was a major crash in the history of the United States. The crash of the stock market in October 1929 was the significant cause of the great depression. People began to panic and big businesses were not able to handle the outcome. As a result, many companies dismissed workers, which left the workers with no money. People halted to purchase goods and businesses were running in loss. Furthermore, after the world war one, many European nations owed huge amount of money to the United States. The economy of these nations was shattered and had no way of paying back the

The history of Australia’s paranoia of invasion is stated by Nikos Papastergiadis to been evident back in 1901 with Australia’s first immigration act weighted by the paranoia of an Asian invasion of the geographical isolated Australia. Australia’s fears increased with the rise of Imperial Japan in WW2. Australia kept itself isolated from Asia as much as possible, only keeping to economic deals, while still supporting British and American

The Great Depression, however inevitable, took the world by surprise when the stock market crashed in 1929. At first people did not fully understand the state of the economy, they could not wrap their heads around the transition from popping champagne bottles to eating bread crumbs for dinner. People were expecting a quick fix to the problem, assuming their lives to go back to normal after a few months, tragically underestimating the situation America was in. As a result, no one was prepared to properly combat the extreme shortage of food, jobs, and money in the years to come.

The Great Depression was the result of life during the Roaring Twenties. People heavily valued materialism and hedonism which in-turn made many people try to find a way to gain a large amount of money in a short period of time. As more and more people were intoxicated with greed and selfishness, they became more careless through their actions and made many mistakes. These mistakes led to the

Australia’s response to the threat of communism after WW2 was extraordinary. Australia and its politicians immediately recognised what could happen of a result of the domino theory. With the Soviet Union influencing so many countries and causing China, Vietnam, and North Korea to turn Communist it was only matter of time until it reached Australia, and all in all this was when Australia took action.

The Great Depression first started as early as 1928, but did not affect the United States until 1929. The Great Stock Market crash started the event of the Depression here in America, but was not the main cause to why it happened. During the early stages of the depression, President Hoover failed to help the economy and continued with his belief system of giving people the least help they needed, so they can earn themselves a rightful spot with pride, not with government’s help. The Great Depression was a very intense experience for us, even until today, the

The Great Depression was a difficult time for all the American people. It was a time of unemployment, falling wages, and hope for recovery (“Chapter 27”). Some of the causes of the Great Depression were government policies, economic factors, and the gold standard (“Chapter 27”). Other reasons included the fall of the stock market, overseas investments, and the investments in Florida real estate (Farless). The president at the time of this difficult time was President Herbert Hoover. When the Great Depression started, Herbert Hoover took matters into his own hands. President Herbert Hoover came up with multiple recovery attempts.