- — Africa:
Forced cotton cultivation and chibalo
Compulsory cotton-growing for Portuguese industry and the chibalo forced-labour system compel Mozambicans to grow cash crops and build infrastructure, reducing food production and worsening rural diets.
Era: Chartered Companies and Forced Labour
Sources: Chibalo · Wikipedia, Mozambique: An Introductory Economic Survey (Report No. 5610-MOZ) · World Bank, Mozambique · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Collectivisation and cotton
Forced collectivisation seized herds and land and ended Turkmen pastoral nomadism amid fierce resistance, while Soviet planning imposed cotton monoculture across the republic's irrigated land.
Era: Soviet Turkmenistan
Sources: Turkmenistan: A Country Study (in 'Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies') · Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, Turkmenistan · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Asia:
Collapse of the pearl trade
The Great Depression and the Japanese cultured pearl destroyed the natural-pearl economy that had sustained the Trucial Coast, bringing years of poverty and hunger.
Era: The Fall of Pearls, the Rise of Oil, and Federation
Sources: History (Discover UAE) · Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Washington DC, History of the United Arab Emirates · UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- — Asia:
The oil concession is granted
Abdulaziz granted an oil exploration concession to the Standard Oil Company of California, the agreement that would become the basis of Aramco.
Era: Oil, Modernization and Contemporary Saudi Arabia
Sources: Oil Discovery in Saudi Arabia · Saudipedia, History of the oil industry in Saudi Arabia · Wikipedia
- — Africa:
Railway completed; Pointe-Noire opens as port
The roughly 512-kilometre railway was completed in 1934, establishing Pointe-Noire as the colony's Atlantic ocean terminal and the backbone of the export economy that bypassed the lower Congo rapids.
Era: French Equatorial Africa, forced labour, and the Congo-Ocean Railway
Sources: Congo–Ocean Railway · Wikipedia, Pointe-Noire railway station · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
The oil concession is granted
Sheikh Ahmad al-Jabir Al-Sabah granted a concession to the Kuwait Oil Company, a joint Anglo-American venture, opening the era of petroleum.
Era: Oil, Independence, and the Welfare State
Sources: Kuwait Oil Company · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kuwait: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
First oil concession signed
Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim granted an oil concession, opening Qatar to the exploration that would lead to the discovery of oil within a few years.
Era: Between the Ottomans and Britain: The 1916 Protectorate
Sources: Qatar: History (Persian Gulf, Oil, Gas) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Copperbelt mineworkers' strike
African mineworkers struck over taxes and conditions; six men were shot dead during the disturbances, an early sign of the labour grievances that would fuel nationalist politics. Further strikes followed in 1940.
Era: Company rule, Northern Rhodesia and the Copperbelt
Sources: Northern Rhodesia · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
Discovery of the Burgan field
Drilling revealed the giant Burgan oil field, one of the world's largest, though development was delayed by the Second World War.
Era: Oil, Independence, and the Welfare State
Sources: Kuwait Oil Company · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — North America:
Oil nationalisation
President Lazaro Cardenas nationalises the petroleum industry, creating Pemex and asserting economic sovereignty.
Era: Modern Mexico: The PRI Era to Today
Sources: Vicente Fox · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Oil struck at Dammam Well No. 7
Commercial quantities of oil were discovered at Dammam Well No. 7 in March 1938, the find that transformed Saudi Arabia's economy and the world energy market.
Era: Oil, Modernization and Contemporary Saudi Arabia
Sources: Dammam No. 7 · Wikipedia, Oil Discovery in Saudi Arabia · Saudipedia
- — Asia:
Oil discovered at Dukhan
Following the 1935 concession, oil was discovered at the Dukhan field, though development stalled during the Second World War.
Era: Oil, the End of Pearls, and Independence
Sources: Qatar: History (Persian Gulf, Oil, Gas) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
Economy & Trade in the 1930s
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged economy and trade — trade, currency, industry and resources, narrowed to the 1930s — 12 of them, drawn from 9 nations, running from 1930 to 1939. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 12
- Nations
- 9
- Earliest
- 1930
- Latest
- 1939
- Asia
- 8
- Africa
- 3
- North America
- 1
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.