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Some historians do not believe it actually occurred, and believe that it was rather a series of smaller unconnected downturns. Data from this period is not ideal and it is difficult to get exact figures, which contributes to the debate.

The depression was most notable in Western Europe and North America, but this is in part because good figures are most readily available in those parts of the world. Britain is often considered the hardest hit by the Long Depression, and during this period it lost much of its large industrial lead over the economies of Continental Europe.

The causes of the depression are also debated. The most immediate cause, and the date that is often used as the start of the Depression, was the collapse of the Vienna Stock Exchange on May 9, 1873. Others have argued the depression was rooted in the Franco-Prussian War that hurt the French economy and forced them to make large reparations payments to Germany. Monetarists believe that the depression was caused by a world shortage of gold that undermined the gold standard. The Second Industrial RevolutionThe Second Industrial Revolution ( 1871- 1914) resulted in the " mass society". This transformation involved significant developments within the chemical, electrical, petroleum, and steel industries. By 1870, the global market was already saturated with m was causing large shifts in the economy of many states and the transition costs may also have played a role in causing the depression.

The Long Depression was not a particularly deep one, unlike the more famous Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a global economic slump that began in the United States following Black Thursday, the Wall Street panic of October 1929. On October 24, 1929, share prices on Wall Street collapsed catastrophically, setting off a chain of bankruptc. The period saw a number of years of growth, but more years of contraction. Throughout the period prices fell and production grew more slowly when compared to earlier and later eras.

Like the Great Depression the Long Depression saw many nations of the world resort to protectionismProtectionism is the economic policy of promoting favored domestic industries through the use of high tariffs and other regulations to discourage imports. Historical variants of this policy have included mercantilism, a trade policy aimed at maximizing cu to shore up faltering industries. Both Germany and FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. abandoned free tradeFree trade is an economic concept referring to the selling of products between countries without tariffs or other trade barriers. Free trade is the absence of artificial ( government-imposed) barriers to trade among individuals and firms in different nati. Some also argue that the long depression contributed to the revival in colonialismColonialism is a system in which a state claims sovereignty over territory and people outside its own boundaries, often to facilitate economic domination over their resources, labor, and often markets. The term also refers to a set of beliefs used to legi in the late nineteenth century as the western powers sought new markets for their goods.

Besides tariffA tariff is a tax placed on imported and/or exported goods, sometimes called a customs duty''. A revenue tariff is set with the intent of raising money for the government. A protective tariff usually applied to imported goods, is intended to artificially policy, governments of the time were not closely involved in managing the economy. It was generally believed that it was not the government's role to intervene in the economy, and thus little was done. The absence of a welfare stateThere are three main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state # A welfare state is a type of government that assumes the primary responsibility for the individual and social welfare of its citizens. The welfare state refers to the provision of welfa also meant that recessions had a far smaller effect on governments for they were not obligated to assist those in need.

The Depression is usually believed to be over by 1897 and from that day until World War I the global economy saw impressive levels of growth.