The Great Depression
One sentence, cause and effect
- The Great Depression, caused by weaknesses in international trade and monetary theories and practices, undermined Western European democracies and fomented radical political responses throughout Europe.
- The cause is technical: weaknesses in international trade and monetary theories and practices, not a single crash.
- The effects are political: democracies undermined, radical responses fomented.
Select both weaknesses the CED blames for the Depression.
Two things, not one — and it faults the ideas as well.
'Theories and practices' is doing work
- The CED faults the ideas as well as the arrangements — a rare move, and worth borrowing.
- So an answer may legitimately say that the doctrines governments held made the crisis worse.
- That connects the economic story to 6.9's liberalism, which had already shifted once from laissez-faire to intervention.
The CED's verb for what happened to Western European democracies is...
A weakening — some survived the decade.
Undermined, not destroyed
- Undermined describes a weakening, and the CED chooses it over a stronger verb deliberately.
- Some Western European democracies survived the decade; the claim is about pressure, not universal collapse.
- Keeping that distinction is what separates an accurate answer from a dramatic one.
A cause, a political effect, or a later link?
Sort each element of the Depression.
The Depression ____ radical political responses throughout Europe.
The CED does not say in which direction.
'Undermined' describes a weakening, not a collapse. The CED says the Depression undermined Western European democracies — some survived the decade, so the claim is about pressure, and an answer that reports universal collapse has overstated a carefully chosen verb.
The CED faults the economic theories, not only the practices.
A rare move, and worth borrowing in an answer.
Radical responses, throughout Europe
- Fomented radical political responses throughout Europe — the CED does not say which direction.
- 8.6 then names economic instability among the conditions in which fascism gained popularity.
- So the Depression is a named cause of 8.6, and writing that link is worth more than any number of statistics.
The Depression connects to 8.6 because 8.6 names...
Writing that link is worth more than statistics.
Causes and effects of a global crisis
- The objective is the causes and effects of the global economic crisis in the 1920s and 1930s.
- Causes: weaknesses in international trade and in monetary theories and practices — two things, not one.
- Effects: democracies undermined, radical politics fomented, and the conditions 8.6 will build on.
A government holds a doctrine that says the correct response to falling revenue is to spend less. It follows the doctrine, demand falls further, and the doctrine tells it to cut again. Nothing has gone wrong with the machinery; the instructions themselves are the fault.
The Great Depression, caused by weaknesses in international trade and monetary theories and practices, undermined Western European democracies and fomented radical political responses throughout Europe. The CED faults the theories as well as the practices; undermined is a weakening, not a collapse; and economic instability reappears in 8.6 as a condition for fascism.