THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Interwar Period

The Great Depression Begins

The world in 1930

The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 has tipped the world into the Great Depression. In 1930 factories close, farm prices collapse and unemployment soars from Detroit to Berlin to Sydney; the US raises tariffs and world trade begins to shrink.

Hard times strengthen extremists: in Germany's September election Hitler's Nazi party jumps from 12 to 107 seats, while Mussolini's Fascists already rule Italy. In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin is forcing peasants onto collective farms and driving rapid industrialisation at terrible human cost. Military coups topple governments in Argentina, Brazil and Peru. Colonial empires still look solid, yet Gandhi's Salt March challenges British rule in India, and nationalist risings shake Vietnam and Burma. In China, Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists have nominally unified the country but are fighting warlords and Communists. Radio, cinema with sound and cars are reshaping daily life in rich countries, while Uruguay hosts the first football World Cup.

Open the map in 1930

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

The Union of South Africa, under Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog, extends the vote to white women in 1930 while further restricting Black Africans. Southern Rhodesia is a self-governing British colony, Northern Rhodesia's Copperbelt is being opened up, and Britain also rules Tanganyika, Nyasaland and Bechuanaland. Belgium governs the Congo, and Portugal, where Antonio de Oliveira Salazar is rising to power, tightens control of Angola and Mozambique.

Northern Africa

Ras Tafari is crowned Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in November 1930 after Empress Zewditu's death. Egypt is a kingdom under King Fuad I with British troops still guarding the Suez Canal, and the Sudan remains an Anglo-Egyptian condominium. France celebrates the centenary of its conquest of Algeria and rules Morocco, where Sultan Mohammed V reigns, and Tunisia. Italy, led in the field by General Rodolfo Graziani, is brutally crushing the Libyan resistance of Omar Mukhtar.

Europe

Europe is sliding into crisis: Germany's Chancellor Heinrich Bruning governs by emergency decree under President Hindenburg as the Nazis surge, while Mussolini rules Italy as Fascist dictator under King Victor Emmanuel III. Britain has a minority Labour government under Ramsay MacDonald, France is governed under President Gaston Doumergue, and in Spain the dictator Primo de Rivera resigned in January, with the monarchy about to fall in 1931. Dictators or strongmen also rule Poland (Pilsudski), Yugoslavia (King Alexander), Hungary (Horthy) and Portugal, and Allied troops left the German Rhineland in June 1930.

Middle East & South Asia

Turkey is a secular republic led by Mustafa Kemal (later Ataturk) from Ankara, and Iran is ruled by Reza Shah Pahlavi, both modernising rapidly. Iraq, under King Faisal I, signs a treaty with Britain in 1930 that will end the mandate in 1932; Britain also rules Palestine and Transjordan, and France holds Syria and Lebanon. Ibn Saud is King of the Hejaz and Nejd (renamed Saudi Arabia in 1932), and Nadir Shah rules Afghanistan. In India, Congress declares the goal of full independence, and Gandhi leads the Salt March in March-April 1930; Viceroy Lord Irwin jails tens of thousands, and the first Round Table Conference opens in London.

Northern & Central Asia

Soviet Central Asia has been divided into national republics, including the Uzbek, Turkmen and new Tajik Soviet republics and autonomous Kazakh and Kirghiz republics. Stalin's forced collectivisation is beginning a catastrophic famine among Kazakh nomads (1930-1933), and the Turkestan-Siberian Railway is completed in 1930. Mongolia is a Soviet-aligned People's Republic, and labour camps of the Gulag are spreading across Siberia.

East Asia

Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government in Nanjing claims all of China after its Northern Expedition (1928), but in 1930 it fights the huge Central Plains War against rival warlords and launches its first campaign against Mao Zedong's Communists in their Jiangxi base area. Manchuria is held by the 'Young Marshal' Zhang Xueliang, coveted by Japan. Japan, under Emperor Hirohito (Showa era), is hit hard by the Depression; Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi is shot by a nationalist in November 1930. Korea and Taiwan are Japanese colonies, and Tibet is ruled by the 13th Dalai Lama.

Southeast Asia

Nationalist and communist challenges are growing: the Yen Bai mutiny shakes French Indochina in February 1930 and Ho Chi Minh founds the Indochinese Communist Party; in Burma the Saya San peasant rebellion erupts in December. The Dutch have jailed Indonesian nationalist leader Sukarno, and the US governs the Philippines amid demands for independence. Siam, under King Prajadhipok (Rama VII), is the last absolute monarchy in the region and will be overthrown in 1932.

Northern North America

Canada, battered by the Depression and a prairie drought, elects Conservative R. B. Bennett as prime minister in July 1930. Newfoundland is a separate British dominion and Alaska a US territory, while Norway and Denmark dispute ownership of East Greenland. The 1931 Statute of Westminster will soon make the dominions fully independent in law.

Southern North America

The United States, under President Herbert Hoover, plunges deeper into depression; the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of June 1930 sparks retaliation around the world. Mexico is ruled by figurehead presidents, Pascual Ortiz Rubio from 1930, under the 'Jefe Maximo' Plutarco Elias Calles and his new National Revolutionary Party. Rafael Trujillo seizes power in the Dominican Republic, Gerardo Machado rules Cuba as a dictator, and Augusto Sandino fights US Marines in Nicaragua.

Northern South America

The Revolution of 1930 brings Getulio Vargas to power in Brazil in November, ending the coffee planters' Old Republic. In Peru, Augusto Leguia is overthrown by Luis Sanchez Cerro in August, and Bolivia's President Hernando Siles is ousted in June. Colombia peacefully elects Liberal Enrique Olaya Herrera, and Juan Vicente Gomez still rules oil-rich Venezuela.

Southern Cone

On 6 September 1930 the Argentine army overthrows the elected Hipolito Yrigoyen and installs General Jose Felix Uriburu, Argentina's first modern military coup and the start of the 'Infamous Decade'. Chile is ruled by the strongman Carlos Ibanez del Campo as the nitrate and copper markets collapse. Uruguay celebrates the centenary of its constitution by hosting and winning the first FIFA World Cup, and Paraguay and Bolivia are edging toward war over the Chaco.

Australasia & Oceania

Australia, under Labor Prime Minister James Scullin, is among the countries worst hit by the Depression, with unemployment heading toward 30 percent; the Sydney Harbour Bridge is under construction. New Zealand, led by George Forbes from May 1930, also suffers hard times, and its rule in Western Samoa faces the peaceful Mau independence movement. Australia administers Papua and the New Guinea mandate, and Japan rules Micronesia.

Events

  1. Mussolini's March on Rome; Soviet Union formally established
  2. Republic of Turkey proclaimed under Mustafa Kemal
  3. Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition captures Beijing; Stalin's first Five-Year Plan
  4. Wall Street Crash begins the Great Depression
  5. Gandhi's Salt March challenges British rule in India
  6. Nazi party wins 107 seats in Germany's Reichstag election
  7. Military coups in Argentina and Brazil; Haile Selassie crowned in Ethiopia; first World Cup in Uruguay

More chapters

Sources