When was the Great Depression?
The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to approximately 1939, beginning with the U.S. stock market crash in October 1929 and ending only with the massive government spending of World War II. It was the longest and most severe economic downturn in modern history, with global unemployment peaking around 1932–1933.
The Great Depression's timeline reveals how an economic crisis can cascade over years, resisting recovery and reshaping societies. Its beginning is precisely dated; its end is more debatable.
The crisis began with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange. 'Black Thursday' (October 24, 1929) saw a massive sell-off, followed by 'Black Monday' and 'Black Tuesday' (October 28–29), when the market lost roughly 25% of its value in two days. But the crash was a symptom, not the sole cause. The real Depression developed over the following years as bank failures, credit contraction, falling industrial production, and rising unemployment reinforced each other in a devastating downward spiral.
The Depression deepened from 1930 to 1933. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff (June 1930) triggered trade wars that collapsed international commerce. Over 9,000 American banks failed between 1930 and 1933. U.S. unemployment peaked at roughly 25% in 1933, with rates even higher in Germany. Industrial production fell by nearly half. Agricultural prices collapsed, ruining farmers across the world. The crisis was global — from the wheat fields of Argentina to the factories of Japan, virtually no economy was spared.
Recovery was partial and uneven. In the United States, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal (beginning in 1933) stabilized the banking system, provided employment through public works, and established the framework of the modern welfare state. But full recovery did not come until the massive government spending of World War II effectively ended unemployment and idle industrial capacity. Other nations recovered at different rates — Nazi Germany reduced unemployment through militarization, while France's Depression lingered into the late 1930s.
The conventional endpoint of 1939 reflects the beginning of World War II, which transformed the economic situation through military spending and industrial mobilization. But the Depression's effects were felt long after — the social programs, financial regulations, and economic theories developed in response to the crisis shaped government policy for decades. The Depression demonstrated that modern capitalist economies could suffer prolonged, self-reinforcing collapses, and that government intervention was necessary to prevent and mitigate them.