OUTLINE THE MOST IMPORTANT CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION. PROVIDE APPROPRIATE EVIDENCE TO ILLUSTRATE THE SCALE OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN ADVANCED NATIONS The Great Depression was the largest economical disaster ever to have happened. Unlike World War One, fifteen years earlier, the great depression had an astronomical effect world wide. The economist Hobsbawm (1995) describes the depression as ‘the world’s largest earthquake’ in economical terms. Indeed the effect of this global economical demise was immense. There are numerous reasons that led to and caused the Great Depression, but un