Through some research, I've found the top five reasons, I believe, caused the Great Depression. One would be the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The crash occured on October 29, 1929, even two months after the original crash, stockholders still lost 40 billion dollars! The Stock Market regained some of its strength back, but it wasnt enough to stop the Great Depression from the very beginning! The next reason for the Great Depression starting was bank failiures. In 1930 alone, 9000 banks failed leaving more people then I could count without money they hoped they would see again. Most surviving banks didn't want to take any unsure risks that could make them fail, so they were more cautious about giving out loans.
The next reason was that people stopped making purchases. Anything people could saving money on with not buying, they wouldn't buy it. I think this is one of the biggest causes because it led to many many problems. People stop buying items means less items produced, leading to factories not needing as many workers. Therefore people were cut off, causing them not to have any money to spend, it's just a big circle. People couldn't pay for loans, cars, and everything they had to pay off, causing a lot of people to have things reposessed. Not to mention to unemployment rate was above 25%! Thats horrible, and I couldnt imagine living like that, even though were facing cuts like no other now-a-days.
The next reason would be the Smoot-Hawley Tariff that was created in 1930. It pretty much was created to help protect American companies. We charged a very high tax on imported goods, causing foreign countries not wanting to trade with us. Leading to less and less trade. The last reason that some may not see as a big reason, but I think its a very logic one, was the drought which occurred in 1930 in the Mississippi Valley. Farmers couldn't sell their land and make money to pay there taxes and pay off their debt. Along with some had no profit because their crops werent worth anything.
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