Early Western Civilization

Traces the development of western civilization in 20 year time periods from 1050 to the present, in Europe and the New World.


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March 02, 2007

1930-1949 Depression, Prohibition, DDT, WWII, Gandhi, Israel


It was the reign of George V who died in 1936 and was succeeded by his son Edward VIII who abdicated in favor of his brother George VI. The longest period of relative world peace and safety in this 20 year period was between the 1931 Japanese Invasion of Manchuria and the outbreak of the 1935-1936 Second Italo-Abyssinian War - 3 years - before WWII broke out in 1939.

In 1931 there was the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria, then the 1935-1936 Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, the 1937-1945 Second Sino-Japanese War, the 1939 Hungarian Invasion of the Carpatho-Ukraine, the 1939 Slovak-Hungarian War, the 1939 Italian Invasion of Albania, the 1939 Soviet-Japanese Border War, the 1939-1945 World War II, the 1941-1942 Ecuadorian-Peruvian War and the 1944-1949 Greek Civil War.

It was was a year after the Wall Street Crash of Oct 24 1929 that caused the worst Depression the world has ever seen. 1932-1934 may have been free of war, but many were out of work, had no money, often went hungry, wore shabby clothes and went without shoes.

In 1930 the helicopter was invented by d'Ascanio, the planet Pluto (now a non-planet) was discovered by Tombaugh, and the Empire State Building was built in New York. There was also civil unrest in India in 1930 led by Gandhi

During the 1930s, came prohibition on alcohol and Al Capone gangsters; the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor of Germany 1933; the Spanish Civil War 1936; the crash of the Hindenburg airship in New Jersey in 1937; the Anschluss of Austria and Hitler's Nuremberg Rally of 1938 ; and finally Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 - which led to the outbreak of WWII.

In 1937 the sulfa drug was discovered by Domagk -- saving the lives of many sick people -- and in 1939 the narcotic pethidine for childbirth was discoverd by Hoescht. Imagine the horrors mothers went through without pethidine!

In 1939 insecticide was discovered by Paul Muller and DDT entered our diets whether or not we liked it, and then in 1939 WWII broke out and lasted until 1945. Athough the war wiped out unemployment, it made lives more miserable than ever with total death and destruction.

During the war penicillin was discovered by Florey in 1940 and introduced in 1946, and in 1942 the ENIAC computer was invented by Brainerd. By the time the Americans joined WWII with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Europe was already a mess.

In 1945 the Americans dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the world war finally ended, heralding  post-war depression caused by living in the wasteland of a war-ravaged land, abject poverty, food rationing and ceaseless war stories -- most of which were of atrocities -- and then in 1945, too, the USSR occupied Korea, followed by the end of the British Empire in 1947 and mass migration of the colonial Indians; West Indians to the UK.

In 1948, nearly two thousand years after being displaced by the Romans, the Jews who had emigrated to their ancient homeland in Palestine to escape German persecution, declared the State of Israel and in doing so precipitated another never ending conflict. In 1948, too, the Communist State of Korea was formed, followed in 1949 by the formation of the Communist state of China. The Cold War had begun.

On a bright note, 1930-1950 was blessed by jazz and then the phenomenon of the swing bands of the 1940s, and the crooning of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Talking films had started.

In the 1930s social life was dominated by cine news, big screen movies and movie stars, going dancing every night where kids bopped till they literally dropped with marathon dance competitions. They listened to 78 rpm records on a gramophone and listened to drama on the radio.

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