Which of the following was cited as a cause of the Great Depression?

• A. Overproduction of goods from World War I
• B. A booming global economy
• C. Rapid industrial modernization after 1945
• D. Increasing agricultural yields

Answer: (A)

Overproduction of goods after World War I created a surplus that people couldn’t buy. Factories and farms produced more than the market could absorb, so prices fell and producers cut back or laid off workers. With fewer people earning wages, demand dropped even further, deepening unemployment and slowing the economy into a nationwide downturn. This mismatch between supply and demand, along with other stressors of the era, is a widely cited cause of the Great Depression.

The other options don’t fit the period or the effect: a booming global economy would help, not cause, a depression; rapid modernization after 1945 occurs after the Depression era; and while increasing agricultural yields did contribute to overproduction in agriculture, it doesn’t capture the broad, economy-wide collapse as clearly as overall overproduction does.