Causes of the Great Depression Outline

To what extent was the Wall Street Crash a cause of the Great Depression of 1929? Support your argument with specific examples.

Introduction- The Wall Street Crash was definitely the most major cause of the Great Depression of 1929, while other major causes, while not as major as the Wall Street Crash, include tariffs and war debt policies that cut down the foreign market for American goods, and Stock Market Speculation.

Reason 1- Wall Street Crash
Notes:
-In the 1920's, people believed the stock market was an easy and quick way to get rich, and many people decided to join
-From 1920 to 1929 the amount of investors changed from about 4 million to 120 million :o
-People thought that the stocks would just continue increasing forever and ever and ever
-Then, in 1929, the Wall Street Crash happened, causing millions of people involved in the stock market to DIE.....inside because they lost so much money

Reason 2-Stock Market Speculation
Notes:
-Around 600,000 investors were speculators
-Speculators would borrow money to buy shares and didn't even have to pay the full value of shares (they only had to put down 10%) because they expected the shares to increase and then they would use profits to pay the rest of the 90%, and apparantly would strill have profits for themselves
-This was a rather large cause of the great depression because this caused not only the investors to lose lots of money, but also the people they borrowed money from lost out because they never would get payed back and the share owners would lose money because they wouldn't get the whole 100%

Reason- Tariffs and war debt policies that cut down the foreign market for American goods
Notes:
-Made American goods less valuable and less desireable
-Sellers of these items would be stuck with stuff without income
-Products became hard to sell and people would not be buying much at this time

Conclusion- In conclusion, the Stock Market Crash was the most important and major cause of the Great Depression of 1929, while Stock Market Speculation and Tariffs and war debt policies that cut down the foreign market for American Goods were other very major causes.