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What Caused The Great Depression

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The 1920s were known as a successful time, but not for everyone. In 1929, the economy went downhill and lasted for about a decade. The stock market crash, high tariffs and war debts, unequal distribution of money, over production and bank closes were some of the reasons for the Great Depression.

The stock market crashed in 1929. Stocks has become overpriced. Americans were trying to use the stock market as a way to “get rich quick” and thought they could make a fortune. It eventually drove the price of stocks up. The stocks had tripled in price from 1920 to 1929 and were being sold higher than what the actual price of the stock was. When the stock market crashed, the values of the stocks plummeted and companies were forced to go out of business because they could not afford it anymore. This caused the unemployment rates to rise rapidly. The stock mark crash did not cause the Great Depression; it was just a factor. …show more content…

They were not able to pay it back because their economy was not doing well due to the war. The United States kept bothering European nations to pay it back. They forced Germany to pay the reparations which led to the Treaty of Versailles. Eventually, this led to a financial crisis and Europe could not purchase goods from the United States anymore. This contributed to the Great Depression. The United States passed the Fordney- McCumber Tariff. This put high tariffs on industrial products. A tariff is a tax on imports. Other nation’s retaliated and world trade declined which also contributed to the Great

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