Many New Mexico farmers had few or no crops to sell and eventually, they were forced to sell their land contributing in the process to the overall decline in farmland values. The Depression also hurt New Mexico's cattle ranchers, for they suffered from both drought and a shrinking marketplace.
Farming was one of the hardest hit segments of the New Mexico economy during the Great Depression. In 1931, the state’s <em>most </em>important crops were only worth about half of their 1929 value. Dry farmers were especially devastated as they suffered from both continually high operating costs and a prolonged drought that dried up portions of New Mexico so badly that they became part of the Dust Bowl. From <u><em>Oklahoma to eastern New Mexico</em></u>, winds picked up the dry topsoil, forming great clouds of dust so thick that it filled the air. On May 28, 1937, one dust cloud, or “black roller,” measuring fifteen hundred feet high and a mile across, descended upon the farming and ranching community of Clayton, New Mexico. The dust blew for hours and was so thick that electric lights could not be seen across the street. Everywhere they hit, the dust storms killed livestock and destroyed crops. In the Estancia Valley entire crops of pinto beans were killed, and that once productive area was transformed into what author John L. Sinclair has called “the valley of broken hearts.”
All this is saying is that when the Europeans colonized Africa they did great damages to the social and political institutions of the natives on a local level, as opposed to necessarily a national level, due to the fact that power in Africa was relatively localized.
Democracy is government in which power and civic responsibility are exercised by all adult citi- zens, directly, or through their freely elected rep- resentatives. Democracy rests upon the principles of majority rule and individual rights. ... Fair, frequent, and well-managed elections are essential in a democracy.
