The U.S. financial panic that began in 1819 after land speculation and bank failures spread across the country was the Panic of 1819.
The crisis followed years of rapid expansion after the War of 1812. Banks issued abundant credit, land prices rose, and investors speculated in western property. When the Second Bank of the United States tightened credit and commodity prices fell, borrowers struggled to repay loans. Banks called in debts and foreclosed on farms and businesses.
The Panic of 1819 was the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States. It caused widespread unemployment, falling land values, business failures, and severe hardship for farmers and debtors. The crisis also intensified political criticism of banks and helped shape later debates about monetary policy.
It is sometimes confused with the Panic of 1837, which occurred nearly two decades later and involved a different combination of banking, land, and currency pressures.