The Major Causes of the Great Depression

Some of the major causes of the Great Depression include (but are not confined to) the stock market collapse (of 1929), the failure of the banking system, the economic downturn in many countries, the American international trade policy (Kennedy, Cohen, & Piehl, 2012). The crash of the stock market is one of the symptoms and, at the same time, the factors making the crises so devastating. The lack or rather absence of sound regulations in stock market operations led to numerous speculations that, in their turn, made the stock market collapse. It is easy to draw a parallel between the crisis of 1929 and the financial crisis of 2008. In 2008, the existing regulations turned out to be insufficient as people could take out loans for the full price of their houses. Moreover, people tried to take loans from different banks to manage the loans they already had. Such type of speculation was accompanied by the downturn in many economies and interactions between international companies and banks, which resulted in the international crisis.

The major causes of World War II included the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of fascism, Nazism, and communism in different countries, the failure of the League of Nations, and so on (Kennedy et al., 2012). All of these factors contributed to many countries’ willingness to participate in another war. The Treaty of Versailles, however, can be regarded as the foundation of World War II as it made the parties involved dissatisfied with the results. Mainly, Germany was destroyed in many respects, and the nation felt that other countries were responsible for Germany’s hardships. The economy could not develop properly as the reparations were unrealistic. German people were disoriented, which led to their adoption of a very dangerous ideology that became another factor that caused the war.

Reference

Kennedy, D. M., Cohen, L., & Piehl, M. (2012). The brief American pageant: A history of the republic. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.