- — North America:
Prohibition-era rum-running
American Prohibition turned the Bahamas into a base for smuggling liquor across the Gulf Stream, enriching the colony until repeal in 1933 ended the trade.
Era: Wrecking, blockade-running and rum
Sources: The Bahamas — British colonization (History) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Bahamas: Local History and Genealogy — Research Guide · Library of Congress
- — Africa:
Building the Congo-Ocean Railway
The Congo-Ocean Railway was built from 1921 to 1934 by the Société de Construction des Batignolles to link Brazzaville to Pointe-Noire; forced labourers conscripted across French Equatorial Africa died in the thousands, an estimate commonly placed above 17,000.
Era: French Equatorial Africa, forced labour, and the Congo-Ocean Railway
Sources: Congo–Ocean Railway · Wikipedia, Deadly railroad project in Congo reveals colonial-era abuses · Stanford Report, Forced Labour and the System of Overburdening in the Interwar Middle Congo, 1918–1948 · International Review of Social History (Cambridge University Press)
- — South America:
Oil gusher at Lake Maracaibo
A massive blowout at La Rosa on Lake Maracaibo reveals vast reserves; foreign companies pour in and by 1929 Venezuela is a leading oil exporter.
Era: Caudillos, the Federal War and the Rise of Oil
Sources: Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate · Council on Foreign Relations, Venezuela: A Country Study · U.S. Library of Congress, Federal Research Division
- — Europe:
Customs union with Switzerland and the Swiss franc
A customs treaty signed in 1923 and in force from 1 January 1924 joined Liechtenstein and Switzerland into a single customs and economic area; Liechtenstein adopted the Swiss franc, binding its economy to its western neighbour.
Era: The Turn to Switzerland, Neutrality and the Beneš Decrees
Sources: Advantages of the customs and monetary union with Switzerland · Liechtenstein Finance, History of Liechtenstein · Embassy of the Principality of Liechtenstein, Washington D.C., Liechtenstein: History (Alpine, Principality, Sovereignty) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
The Firestone rubber concession
The government granted the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company a 99-year concession to lease up to a million acres, creating one of the world's largest rubber plantations and binding Liberia's economy to a single foreign company.
Era: The republic and the True Whig order
Sources: Liberia — History (Colonialism, Civil War, Reconstruction) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Liberian Civil War (1989–2003) and Firestone · Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
- — Oceania:
The Bulolo gold rush
A major find along the Bulolo river draws a second rush, pulling outsiders and aircraft into country that had barely been mapped.
Era: Australian rule and the highland 'first contact'
Sources: Papua New Guinea country profile · BBC News
- — Africa:
Copperbelt copper proven
Rich copper sulphide ores were proven beneath the Copperbelt, and large-scale mining from the 1930s built the industrial economy that came to dominate the territory.
Era: Company rule, Northern Rhodesia and the Copperbelt
Sources: Northern Rhodesia · Wikipedia, History of Zambia · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Oil struck at Seria
The British Malayan Petroleum Company, a Shell enterprise, makes the first commercial oil discovery at Seria, launching the petroleum industry that would make Brunei rich.
Era: Oil, the Japanese Occupation, and the Road to Self-Government
Sources: History of Brunei · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Brunei · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — North America:
United Fruit absorbs Cuyamel
Zemurray sells Cuyamel to the United Fruit Company, concentrating the Honduran banana industry as the Depression begins.
Era: The Banana Economy and the Original Banana Republic
Sources: Banana republic · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — North America:
Great Depression
The stock market crash of 1929 triggered a decade-long economic collapse, answered by Roosevelt's New Deal programmes of relief, recovery, and reform.
Era: Reconstruction, industrial rise, and the World Wars
Sources: Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation; U.S. History Collections · Library of Congress
Economy & Trade in the 1920s
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged economy and trade — trade, currency, industry and resources, narrowed to the 1920s — 10 of them, drawn from 10 nations, running from 1920 to 1929. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 10
- Nations
- 10
- Earliest
- 1920
- Latest
- 1929
- Africa
- 3
- North America
- 3
- Asia
- 1
- Europe
- 1
- Oceania
- 1
- South America
- 1
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.