recklessness, greed, and overoptimism played a part in the early-20th-century financial crisis on the canadian wheat frontier. beginning in 1916, the palliser triangle, a semiarid region in alberta and saskatchewan, suffered a decade of dry years and crop failures that culminated in financial ruin for many of the region's wheat farmers. overconfidence on the part of farmers, financiers, the canadian pacific, and the canadian government led to land investments and development in the palliser on an unprecedented and dangerous scale. a large share of this expansion was funded by mortgage and loan companies in britain eager to make overseas investments. british money managers were driven by a complex set of global economic forces including a decline in british investment opportunities, excess capital, and massive investment expansion on the canadian frontier. reduced grain production in europe and increased grain production in the prairie provinces also encouraged the export of capital from london. the mythical image of the palliser as an abundant region, coupled with a growing confidence in technology, created a false sense of security and stability. between 1908 and 1913 british firms lent vast sums to canadian farmers to plant their wheat crops; only when the drought began in 1916 did it become clear that far too much credit had been extended.