104k views
0 votes
What role did the panic of 1893 play in the election of 1896?

1 Answer

2 votes
The Panic of 1893 was a major economic crisis in the United States, the largest it had seen up to that time. Many Americans saw the panic as a result of increased railroad speculation after the Civil War and a rigid attachment to the gold standard. The panic gave power to the Populists, a political movement of farmers who opposed the growing power of industrialists, and brought the issue of eliminating the gold standard to the center of the 1896 election.
User Melih Sahin
by
6.7k points