The Great Depression was the worst and longest economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world. Beginning in the United States, the depression spread to most of the world's industrial countries, which in the 20th century had become economically dependent on one another. The United States saw rapid declines in the production and sale of goods and a sudden, severe rise in unemployment. Businesses and banks closed their doors, people lost their jobs, homes, and savings, and many depended on charity to survive. In 1933, at the worst point in the depression, more than 15 millio…
