Causes of the Great Depression

Title: Causes of the Great Depression Outline Labels: Great_Depression, essay_skills



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

The Wall Street Crash was one of several causes of the Great Depression, as well as the result of causes

Example of the outline structure:




Thesis: The Wall Street Crash was a cause of the Great Depression of 1929, however other factors, tariffs and war debt policies, agriculture failing , the availability of credit, unequal distribution of incomes, and overproduction also helped to bring about the Great Depression.
I. Main Point 1: Tariffs and war debt policies
a. Evidence 1 that supports Main Point 1: Hawley-Smoot tariff
i. further supporting details: causes Americans products stop selling in Europe after europe retaliates against the tariff on their goods, weakens economy
b. Evidence 2 that supports Main Point 1: Germany cannot pay Britain and france
II. Main Point 2: Agriculture crisis
a: farmers overproduce when deemed falls after the war
Farms go out of business, annual income from 10 billion to 4 billion from '19-21
b. banks lose money
III: Availibility of credit
a: in the 20's everyone used credit to buy things
i; they got into debt and could not pay it off
b: with people in debt, less consumer spending
IV: unequal distribution of income
a: small population of rich people control huge portion of the economy
i: poor get poorer, rich get richer
b: lower wages: less spending

V: Industries overproduce
A industries overproduce and demand goes down, their value goes down
i: to cut spending, layoff
b: unemployment, leads to less spending by consumers

VI: stock market crash
a: stock market crashes, people rush to sell stocks
i: people had been buying stocks with money they did not have (speculation)
b: when people do not have money to pay debt, banks lose other people's money and close