The Great Depression of the 1930s was a result of many economic changes in America. The end of World War I came in 1919. Throughout the war, federal spending grew three times larger than tax collections. In 1920, the government cut back on expenses to balance their budget. This caused decreased business activity and extremely high unemployment rates throughout the 1920s. This period of time was known as the recession. In 1929, the stock market crashed in the United States. Thousands of investors lost large sums of money and many people lost everything. This crash led us into The Great Depress