1930- 1939

Paige Hunter

Great Depression

• 1929- Wall Street crash- Americans called in loans from other countries and stopped imports of foreign goods, creating a depression and unemployment for people across the rest of the world.

• By 1930, unemployment had doubled to 20%

Worst hit were the areas of heavy industry (eg coal, iron, steel, shipbuilding) in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the north of England. For example, when the coal mine, the steel works and Palmer's shipyard closed down in Jarrow in the north-east of England, every single man in the town was made redundant and Jarrow 'died’

Discovered words- new deal, reflation, hyperinflatation

British union of fascists formed

• Formed in 1932

• Sir Oswald Mosley was the founder of the political party after meeting

Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini

• was known for supporting Hitler

• His followers were known as ‘the black shirts’ due to them wearing black

uniforms.

Discovered words- fascism/fascist, black shirts, Italian

Cockroft and Walton split the atom

• In 1932

• They put lithium with high energy neutrons, electrons and protons and succeeded in transmuting it into helium and other chemical elements. This was one of the earliest experiments to change the atomic nucleus of one element to a different nucleus by artificial means.

• popularly known as splitting the atom.

• Discovered words- Atom, electron, protons, neutrons, lithium, scientific language

Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany

• In 1933

• President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the

National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of

Germany.

• Discovered words- Terminology from Germany, Swastika, Nazi, Gestapo

(police)

Stalin purges begin in Soviet Union

• In 1934

• Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union

• Stalin set about purging Russia of anyone who he considered a threat or

disloyal : Communist leadership was purged, the armed forces were purged,

the Communist Party was purged

• Discovered words- Russian terminology

Penguin books released

• In 1935

• The first ten Penguins included works by Ernest Hemingway and Agatha Christie. They cost just sixpence, the same price as a packet of cigarettes, and were available in traditional bookshops, but also in railway stations and tobacconists.

• Three million Penguin paperbacks were sold within a year. It was a revolution in publishing that massively widened public access to literature.

• Discovered words- literature, new adjectives?

BBC begins television broadcast

• In 1936

• The BBC Television Service officially began regular broadcasts on 2

November 1936 from a converted wing of the Alexandra Palace in London

• Discovered words- BBC, broadcasting

Spanish Civil war begins

• Begins in 1936

• A civil war fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans, who were loyal to the democratic Spanish Republic, and the Nationalists, a fascist rebel group

• The Nationalists were supported by the Church, army, landowners, and industrialists, some of the middle-class and the Catholic peasantry. Liberals, Socialists, Communists and Anarchists supported the Republicans.

• Discovered words- Spanish words

Appeasment

• In 1938

• The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, signed the Munich

Agreement with Hitler, a document aimed at preventing war with Germany.

This policy was known as ‘appeasement’. The journalists presented

Chamberlain as a hero, celebrating the fact that he was 'refusing to bow to

fatigue, refusing to give way to discouragement.’

• Discovered words- co-existence, defence, collective security

World war II begins

• In 1939 to 1945

• Hitler invaded Poland, and Britain was jolted into action

• Discovered words- Bren guns, interceptor fighters, partisan, resistance

• First coloured films were made

• Sales of ice cream boomed in the 1930s and many new kinds of sweets were

introduced. These included, Milky Way (1935), Snickers and Freddo (1930),

Mars Bar (1932), Whole Nut (1933), Aero and Kit Kat (1935), Maltesers and

Blue Riband (1936) and Smarties, Rolo and Milky Bar (1937) Penguins (1932

• A driving test was introduced in 1934. Also in 1934 Percy Shaw invented the

cat's eye