Panic of 1917 (Napoleon's World)

The Panic of 1917 was a broad global economic panic felt most strongly in Europe, especially in France, but which also had profound effects worldwide. The panic gains its name from the November 1917 stock market crash in Paris, and a calling in of debts soon set off a near-global run on the bank and the sovereign defaults of multiple nations, sending the world's financial structure spiralling out of control. Deep depressions plagued several countries, and even other industrialized countries such as Ireland, the United States and Naples suffered through recessions and poor economic times in the ensuing years, with the United States' growth being especially slow in the 1920's.

However, the worst of the economic malaise was felt in France, which entered a long period of commodity shortages, labor unrest, high inflation and widening gaps in equality, as well as cultural tensions. The fallout from the Panic of 1917 is widely attributed to leading to the right-wing coup in the Iron Revolution in August 1925. In England, the depression was the second major economic panic in eight years, and directly led to the successful overthrow of the democratic Republic of England by the Socialists in 1922. Many also attribute the economic doldrumbs of the 1920's to Spain's fall to communism in 1927.