Events, Verisoph

c. 1935 The estates run on resident and migrant plantation labour 0 cit. The tea estates depended on a large workforce of pluckers and field hands, housed on the estates or drawn in from nearby reserves. Wages were low and the labour was tied to the plantation. This pattern of estate labour on land taken from local communities carried on well past the end of colonial rule. economy / society ●●

26 September 1936 France abandons the gold standard 0 cit. France and the last members of the gold bloc finally devalued and left gold after years of grinding deflation. Countries that had clung to gold longest suffered the deepest and longest slumps. economy / politics ●●●

1936 Argus cameras are named for the hundred-eyed giant of Greek myth 0 cit. The Argus camera brand, launched in Michigan in 1936, borrows the name of Argus Panoptes, the hundred-eyed all-seeing giant of Greek myth. economy / religion / technology ●

1936 Publication of Keynes's General Theory 0 cit. John Maynard Keynes publishes The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, arguing that government spending could counteract unemployment during downturns. The book became the foundation of postwar economic policy across the West and the chief target of the free-market economists gathered around Hayek and, later, Milton Friedman. economy ●●●

1936 Publishes How Britain Rules Africa 0 cit. Padmore published How Britain Rules Africa, a detailed indictment of colonial administration, land seizure, and forced labor across the continent. The book combined reporting with sharp political argument. It cemented his standing as a leading anti-colonial writer in Britain. culture / economy / politics ●●

28 May 1937 Founding of Volkswagen 0 cit. The Nazi labor front founds Volkswagen to build Ferdinand Porsche's 'people's car,' with a factory at what becomes Wolfsburg. After the war the Beetle becomes the best selling car in history and VW a global auto giant. economy / politics / technology ●●●●

28 August 1937 Founding of Toyota 0 cit. Kiichiro Toyoda spins the Toyota Motor Corporation out of his father's loom works. Its lean production system becomes the world's most studied manufacturing method, and Toyota becomes the largest automaker. economy / technology ●●●●

23 May 1937 John D. Rockefeller Sr dies 0 cit. John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, died in May 1937 at the age of 97. He left much of his fortune to philanthropy managed by his family and foundations. economy / society ●●●

1937 Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich 0 cit. Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich taught that focused desire and belief could produce wealth, drawing on New Thought ideas about the creative power of the mind. The bestseller shaped modern success literature and fed directly into prosperity preaching. culture / economy ●●●

c. 1937 The Squatters Squeezed off the Settler Farms 0 cit. As settler farming intensified, laws such as the Resident Native Labourers Ordinances of 1925 and 1937 steadily cut the squatters' rights to cultivate and graze, reclassifying them as mere farm labourers. In the 1940s many Kikuyu squatter families were evicted from the Rift Valley and sent back to overcrowded reserves that could not hold them. This wave of eviction and landlessness produced many of the recruits and much of the fury that the Mau Mau movement would soon channel. economy / politics / society ●●●

1937 Publishes Africa and World Peace 0 cit. Padmore published Africa and World Peace, tying the fate of the colonized continent to the coming global conflict. He argued that empire and the scramble for African resources were sources of war, not stability. The book widened his audience beyond activist circles. diplomacy / economy / politics ●

1 March 1938 Founding of Samsung 0 cit. Lee Byung-chul founds Samsung as a small trading company in Daegu dealing in groceries and dried fish. It grows into South Korea's largest chaebol, spanning electronics, shipbuilding, and construction. economy ●●●●

7 June 1938 Founding of Pemex 0 cit. After President Cardenas expropriates foreign oil companies, Mexico creates the state firm Petroleos Mexicanos. The nationalization becomes a model cited by oil-producing countries worldwide. economy / politics ●●●

3 March 1938 Oil Struck at Dammam No. 7 0 cit. After years of dry wells, the Dammam No. 7 well came in as a commercial gusher, proving Saudi Arabia's vast reserves. The find transformed the kingdom's finances and future. economy / exploration ●●●●●

c. February 1938 Discovery of the Burgan Field in Kuwait 0 cit. The Kuwait Oil Company discovered the Burgan field, one of the largest oil fields ever found. Kuwait's oil made it among the wealthiest states per capita after production began. economy / exploration ●●●●

1938 Nazi seizure of the Austrian Rothschild bank 0 cit. After Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the Nazi regime seized the Vienna Rothschild bank and family assets. Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild was arrested and released only after a large ransom in property. economy / politics / war ●●●●

1938 The Mercury car brand is named for the Roman messenger god 0 cit. Edsel Ford launched the Mercury car brand in 1938, naming it after Mercury, the swift Roman messenger god, to convey speed and dependability. economy / religion / technology ●●

4 March 1938 Oil found in commercial quantities at Dammam No. 7 0 cit. After years of dry holes, well number seven at Dammam finally strikes oil in commercial volumes, proving Saudi Arabia sat atop enormous reserves. It began the transformation of a poor desert kingdom into the world's swing producer. economy / technology ●●●

18 March 1938 Mexico nationalizes its oil and creates Pemex 0 cit. President Lázaro Cárdenas expropriates the foreign oil companies after a labor dispute and hands their assets to the new state firm Pemex. It was the first major nationalization of oil and became a model for producer states that followed. economy / politics ●●●

18 March 1938 Mexico nationalizes oil and creates Pemex 0 cit. President Lazaro Cardenas expropriated the assets of foreign oil companies and placed the industry under a new state firm, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Oil became a national asset run by the government rather than by private investors. The move became a model for developing states that wanted to own their own natural resources. economy / politics ●●●

1938 The book's argument: land, culture, and self-rule 0 cit. The book presented Kikuyu society as a coherent, self-governing order with its own religion, land system, and law, wrecked by European settlement rather than uplifted by it. Its heart was the claim that land was held communally and stolen by the settlers. Under the anthropology sat a plain political case for Kikuyu land rights and eventual self-rule. culture / economy / politics ●●●

July 1938 The Kamba resist forced destocking 0 cit. In 1938 the colonial government ordered the Kamba to sell off large numbers of cattle, claiming their herds were destroying the land. The Ukamba Members Association, led by Muindi Mbingu, organised protests and a march of around two thousand people who camped in Nairobi to demand a hearing. The campaign forced the government to back down, a rare early victory against colonial rule. economy / politics ●●

1 January 1939 Founding of Hewlett-Packard 0 cit. Bill Hewlett and David Packard formalize their partnership, working from a Palo Alto garage now marked as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. HP grows into a leading maker of instruments, computers, and printers. economy / technology ●●●

20 January 1939 Schacht dismissed from the Reichsbank 0 cit. Hitler dismissed Schacht as Reichsbank President after he and the bank's directors warned that runaway military spending would bring inflation. His removal cleared the last check on financing the coming war. economy / politics ●●●

1939 Hewlett-Packard is founded in a Palo Alto garage 0 cit. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, students of Stanford's Frederick Terman, started HP in a garage that is now treated as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. Wartime and Cold War military contracts for electronics gave the young company its first steady business. economy / technology / war ●●

1939 The Highlands Order in Council Seals the Preserve 0 cit. The Kenya (Highlands) Order in Council, made in 1938 and in force from 1939, at last gave the White Highlands the force of statute. It fixed the boundary of the reserved area and set up a Highlands Board controlling who could hold land there, formally barring Africans and Indians alike. The color bar on the best farmland was now written into imperial law, and it stood until the eve of independence. economy / politics ●●●

4 November 1939 Cash and carry replaces the arms embargo 0 cit. The United States revises its Neutrality Acts to let warring nations buy American arms, but only if they pay in cash and carry the goods away in their own ships. The rule keeps America formally neutral while opening its factories to buyers with hard currency. For Britain and France it means every rifle and aircraft must be paid for up front in dollars or gold. diplomacy / economy / war ●●●

1940 Sengier ships Congolese uranium to New York 0 cit. Edgar Sengier, a director of Union Miniere, foresaw war and had roughly 1,200 tons of high-grade Shinkolobwe uranium ore shipped to New York, where it sat in a warehouse on Staten Island. In 1942 he sold it to the United States Army for the secret atomic bomb program. The ore was far richer than American or Canadian sources, and its origin in a Belgian colony was kept quiet. economy / technology / war ●●●

c. 1940 Farm Labour in Wartime Sussex 0 cit. Through the Second World War Kenyatta lived in the English countryside, working as an agricultural labourer on a farm at Storrington in Sussex and lecturing on Africa for the Workers' Educational Association and to British troops. The years among ordinary English working people, far from colonial officialdom, deepened his ease in Britain. He kept up his political writing and contacts with other anti-colonial activists throughout. economy / society ●

c. 1940 Britain ships its gold across the Atlantic 0 cit. To meet the cash-and-carry rule, Britain sends gold and dollar securities across the Atlantic to pay for American supplies. Some shipments travel by warship under guard. The purchases keep the war going but steadily drain the reserves the country needs to buy anything from abroad. economy / war ●●●

December 1940 Britain's reserves near exhaustion 0 cit. By late 1940 Britain's gold and dollar reserves are close to running out. The Treasury warns that the country can no longer pay cash for the American arms it depends on. Churchill puts the problem directly to President Roosevelt, saying Britain will soon be unable to pay in full for shipping and supplies. diplomacy / economy / war ●●●

c. 1940 American Viscose, Courtaulds' prize in America 0 cit. The American Viscose Corporation is the United States rayon business owned by the British textile firm Courtaulds. It is highly profitable and one of the most valuable British-owned companies in America. As Britain's dollars run low, this healthy overseas asset becomes a target for sale to raise cash. economy ●●

c. 1940 Britain liquidates its American investments 0 cit. Through 1940 and 1941 the British government requisitions and sells off British-owned direct investments in the United States to raise dollars. Company after company held by British owners is cashed in to pay for the war. The policy strips Britain of the overseas holdings that had underpinned its financial strength for decades. economy / war ●●●

c. 1940 More gold leaves the country 0 cit. Alongside the sale of companies, Britain keeps shipping gold abroad to settle its bills. Reserves that took generations to build are handed over in a matter of months. The critic Andrew Boyle and others later called this stretch the selling of the family silver, the disposal of the nation's accumulated wealth to stay in the fight. economy / war ●●

11 March 1941 The Lend-Lease Act makes Britain dependent on American supply 0 cit. Lend-Lease let the United States ship arms, food, and materiel to Britain and other allies without immediate payment, keeping them in the war. It deepened Britain's reliance on American industry and finance and hastened the shift in global leadership. economy / war ●●●

25 June 1941 Executive Order 8802 bans discrimination in defense industry 0 cit. President Franklin Roosevelt signed an order banning racial discrimination in the defense industry and federal government, issued under pressure from a threatened March on Washington led by labor leader A. Philip Randolph. It created the Fair Employment Practices Committee to enforce the policy. It was the first federal action against employment discrimination since Reconstruction. economy / politics ●●

c. 1941 The Squatters Resist at Olenguruone 0 cit. From 1941 the government resettled Kikuyu squatters evicted from settler farms at Olenguruone in the Rift Valley, but only as tenants bound to strict destocking and soil conservation rules, not as owners of the land they cleared. The settlers there refused to accept tenant status or the cultivation and stock limits, insisting the land was theirs, and their long standoff with the administration ran through the 1940s. Historians such as Tabitha Kanogo and Frank Furedi treat Olenguruone as the crucible where squatter grievance hardened into open, organized defiance of the colonial state. economy / politics / society ●●●

March 1941 Lend-Lease keeps Britain in the war at a price 0 cit. With British cash reserves nearly exhausted, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, letting the United States supply arms and goods without immediate payment. The aid kept Britain fighting, but Washington first pressed Britain to spend down its dollar reserves and sell overseas assets, and it used its leverage to push for opening the closed markets of the British Empire. diplomacy / economy / war ●●●

c. 1941 Britain liquidates its overseas assets to pay for war 0 cit. To buy American supplies before Lend-Lease, Britain sold off large parts of its foreign investment portfolio, including the forced sale of the American Viscose company at a low price. The dismantling of the overseas assets built up over a century stripped Britain of the invisible earnings that had long balanced its books. economy / war ●●

March 1941 The Treasury forces the sale of American Viscose 0 cit. Under pressure from both the American and British Treasuries, Courtaulds is required to sell American Viscose to raise dollars for the war. The sale is arranged in March 1941, weeks before Lend-Lease removes the cash requirement. Britain is made to give up one of its best foreign assets at the moment its bargaining position is weakest. diplomacy / economy / war ●●●

March 1941 Sold below its value to a Wall Street syndicate 0 cit. American Viscose is sold for about 54 million dollars to a syndicate led by Morgan Stanley and Dillon, Read and Company. Estimates of the company's real worth ran well over 100 million dollars. The bankers soon resold the business at a large profit, so much of the gap between the sale price and the true value went to the Wall Street buyers rather than to Britain. economy ●●●

c. 1941 Courtaulds and Churchill protest the terms 0 cit. Courtaulds objects that it was forced to sell a sound business far too cheaply, and the British government later pays the firm partial compensation. Churchill protests the harshness of the terms to Washington. The Viscose sale becomes a lasting symbol of Britain being made to liquidate its finest asset while an American syndicate profited. diplomacy / economy ●●

c. January 1941 The dollar assets run dry 0 cit. By early 1941 Britain has spent almost all of its usable overseas dollar assets. The reserves that had paid for two years of purchases are nearly gone. With no way left to pay cash, Britain can only keep buying American supplies if the United States changes the terms. economy / war ●●●

11 March 1941 The Lend-Lease Act ends the cash demand 0 cit. President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act, letting the United States supply arms and materials to Britain and its allies without immediate cash payment. It rescues Britain from the dollar crisis that had forced sales like American Viscose. It also ties Britain more closely to American supply and American terms for the rest of the war. diplomacy / economy / war ●●●●

December 1942 Beveridge Report published 0 cit. William Beveridge's report proposes a comprehensive system of social insurance to defeat want, disease, ignorance, squalor, and idleness. It becomes the blueprint for the British welfare state. economy / society ●●●●

4 August 1942 Bracero Program Begins 0 cit. The United States and Mexico signed an agreement creating the Bracero Program, which brought Mexican contract laborers to work mainly in US agriculture during and after World War II. The program was supposed to guarantee minimum wages, decent housing, and the return of a mandatory savings deduction, but scholars including Mireya Loza and Deborah Cohen have documented widespread wage theft, unsafe pesticide exposure, overcrowded and unsanitary housing, and racial discrimination against braceros by employers. diplomacy / economy / society ●●●

23 February 1942 Article VII points against imperial preference 0 cit. The Mutual Aid Agreement setting out the terms of Lend-Lease includes Article VII, a commitment to work toward removing discriminatory trade barriers. American negotiators read this as a move against Britain's system of imperial trade preference, which shielded empire markets from outside competition. The clause makes reducing the closed empire trading bloc part of the price of American aid. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

1943 Founding of IKEA 0 cit. Seventeen-year-old Ingvar Kamprad founds IKEA in rural Sweden, initially selling by mail order. Its flat-pack furniture and giant stores make it the world's largest furniture retailer. culture / economy ●●

1943 Alfried Krupp gains sole control under the Lex Krupp 0 cit. A special 1943 Nazi decree, the Lex Krupp, let Alfried Krupp take sole ownership of the family firm. It kept the great arms company under a single controlling heir. economy / politics ●●

1943 to 1944 The Bengal famine of 1943 0 cit. Wartime policies, hoarding and the diversion of food and shipping caused a famine that killed around three million people in British-ruled Bengal. Relief was slow and inadequate as the empire prioritized the war effort. economy / environment ●●●

c. 1943 The Green Revolution funded by Rockefeller and Ford 0 cit. The Rockefeller Foundation, later joined by Ford, funds farm research in Mexico that produces high-yield crops and spreads across Asia and Latin America. The work, led by figures like Norman Borlaug, is credited with saving many from famine. It also shows how foundations could reshape whole economies and agricultures on their own terms. economy / science / society ●●

1943 Rotary adopts the Four-Way Test 0 cit. Rotary adopted a short ethics code written a decade earlier by the Chicago businessman Herbert J. Taylor, who used it to steer a struggling company. The Four-Way Test asks of anything one thinks, says, or does whether it is true, fair to all, builds goodwill, and benefits all concerned. It became a defining statement of the club's business ethics. economy / society ●●

7 December 1944 Chicago Convention 0 cit. Convention on international civil aviation establishing rules of airspace sovereignty and founding the International Civil Aviation Organization. It remains the constitution of world air travel. diplomacy / economy / technology ●●●

July 1944 Bretton Woods Conference 0 cit. Delegates from 44 Allied nations meet in New Hampshire to design the postwar monetary order. The conference pegs currencies to the dollar and creates the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. economy / politics ●●●●

22 June 1944 GI Bill of Rights 0 cit. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act gives returning World War II veterans college tuition, home loan guarantees, and unemployment pay. It sends millions to college and into homeownership, helping build the postwar middle class. economy / society ●●●

March 1944 Publication of The Road to Serfdom 0 cit. Friedrich Hayek publishes The Road to Serfdom, warning that central planning leads toward tyranny. The book becomes a founding text of the postwar revival of free-market liberalism. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1944 The US dollar becomes the world's reserve currency 0 cit. Under the Bretton Woods system the dollar became the anchor of global trade and central bank reserves. It kept that role after 1971, giving the United States broad influence over world finance. economy / politics ●●●●

c. January 1944 Creation of the Arabian American Oil Company 0 cit. The California Arabian Standard Oil Company was renamed the Arabian American Oil Company, known as Aramco. It became the largest oil producer in the world and the core of Saudi wealth. economy ●●●●

July 1944 The Bretton Woods Agreement 0 cit. Allied nations agreed to a system of fixed exchange rates in which currencies were tied to the US dollar, and the dollar was convertible to gold. The deal also created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. economy / politics ●●●●●

1 July 1944 to 1944 Bretton Woods makes the dollar the anchor of world finance 0 cit. Delegates from 44 nations created the IMF and the World Bank and pegged currencies to a US dollar convertible to gold, with America holding most of the world's gold reserves. A Bank of England official called it the greatest blow to Britain next to the war. economy / politics ●●●

1944 Eric Williams links slavery to capitalism 0 cit. In Capitalism and Slavery the historian Eric Williams argued that profits from slavery helped finance Britain's industrial revolution. His thesis reshaped debate over how central the trade was to modern economic growth. economy / science ●●●

22 July 1944 Bretton Woods calls for the BIS to be abolished 0 cit. Delegates at the Bretton Woods Conference passed a resolution urging that the BIS be wound up at the earliest possible moment, partly over its wartime record. The recommendation was never carried out and the bank survived. economy / politics ●●●

1944 The GI Bill opens college to millions 0 cit. The 1944 GI Bill paid for veterans to attend college and training after World War II. It fueled a huge expansion of American higher education and the middle class. economy / politics ●●●

1944 to 1946 Founding of the World Bank (IBRD) 0 cit. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was created at Bretton Woods to rebuild war-torn Europe and later fund development. It made its first loan, to France, in 1947. economy / politics ●●●●●

c. 1944 Weighted voting and the quota system 0 cit. Voting power at both institutions is tied to financial contributions rather than one country one vote, giving the United States an effective veto over major decisions. Supporters call it realistic; critics call it a democratic deficit. economy / politics ●●●●

1 July 1944 Bretton Woods builds the machinery of the world economy 0 cit. Weeks before the UN itself was born, allied delegates met in New Hampshire and created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These bodies, later tied into the UN system, would steer global money and development for generations. Supporters saw a framework for shared prosperity, while critics saw the start of a Western-led order that set the rules for everyone else. economy / politics ●●●

July 1944 The Bretton Woods conference builds a new financial order 0 cit. Delegates from forty-four nations met in New Hampshire and agreed to a postwar monetary system fixing currencies to the US dollar, which was in turn tied to gold at thirty-five dollars an ounce. The dollar, not sterling, became the anchor of world finance, a direct measure of America's new economic dominance. diplomacy / economy ●●●

July 1944 The IMF and the World Bank are created 0 cit. The Bretton Woods conference established the International Monetary Fund to manage exchange rates and the World Bank to fund reconstruction and development. Both were headquartered in Washington and weighted toward American voting power, embedding US influence in the machinery of global finance. diplomacy / economy ●●●

1944 Hayek writes The Road to Serfdom 0 cit. While at the LSE, Hayek published The Road to Serfdom, arguing that central economic planning tends to lead to loss of freedom. The book became widely read and made him a leading voice of free-market thought. Scholars trace a line from this LSE work to the later revival of market liberalism. economy / politics ●●

July 1944 Financial primacy passes to the United States 0 cit. At the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, the delegates built a postwar monetary system around the US dollar, backed by American gold. Britain, deep in war debt and reliant on American aid, could no longer anchor the world's finances. Across the two world wars, naval and financial leadership passed from Britain to the United States. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●●

July 1944 Bretton Woods sets the postwar dollar order 0 cit. Allied nations meet at Bretton Woods and agree a new financial system built around the US dollar, backed by gold, with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to police it. Keynes argued for a more neutral international currency but the American plan won out. The postwar world would run on dollars, and the levers sat in Washington. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

16 October 1945 Founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization 0 cit. Delegates from 44 nations meeting in Quebec City establish the FAO to fight hunger and improve nutrition and agriculture worldwide. It later became the first specialized agency of the United Nations, based in Rome. diplomacy / economy / society ●●●

27 December 1945 Founding of the International Monetary Fund 0 cit. The IMF's Articles of Agreement, drawn up at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, enter into force when 29 countries sign, creating the institution charged with stabilizing exchange rates and the international monetary system. diplomacy / economy ●●●●

27 December 1945 Founding of the World Bank 0 cit. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, designed at Bretton Woods in 1944, formally comes into existence to finance postwar reconstruction and later development lending worldwide. diplomacy / economy ●●●●

c. 1945 Zurich as a global banking center 0 cit. Switzerland's neutrality, stable franc and bank secrecy draw international capital to Zurich after the Second World War. The city remains a leading center for private banking and wealth management, home to UBS. economy ●●●

1945 Rise of American Global Power 0 cit. The end of the Second World War left the United States as the world's dominant economic and military power. Its influence shaped global politics for the rest of the century. economy / politics ●●●●●

c. 1945 The rules-based liberal international order as doctrine 0 cit. From 1945 the United States and its allies openly built and named a 'liberal' and later 'rules-based' international order, the establishment term for the managed global system that the phrase 'world order' most accurately describes. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●●

26 December 1945 CFA franc created for French colonial Africa 0 cit. France created the Franc des Colonies Françaises d'Afrique (CFA franc) by decree, giving its African colonies a currency pegged to the French franc. After independence in the 1960s, the peg and the arrangement continued largely unchanged, and the CFA franc is still used today by 14 African countries organized into two zones, each with its own central bank. It is the most documented and longest-running currency arrangement tying former colonies to their former ruler. economy ●●●

26 December 1945 Creation of the CFA franc 0 cit. France creates the CFA franc as a single currency for its African colonies, pegged to the French franc and guaranteed by the French treasury. The arrangement tied African money to Paris and required member states to hold much of their reserves in France. It set up a monetary link that would outlast the colonies themselves. economy / politics ●●

February 1945 Saudi Arabia as pillar of Western influence in the Gulf 0 cit. The 1945 meeting between Franklin Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz sealed a lasting bargain of Saudi oil for American security. The United States armed and protected the absolute monarchy for decades, and both funded anti-communist and anti-Soviet causes, from Afghanistan to Angola. Western powers kept close ties despite the kingdom's harsh internal rule. diplomacy / economy ●●●

c. 1945 The Making of the Mau Mau Grievance 0 cit. Land hunger in the reserves, squatter evictions, the colour bar, and the frustration of a generation shut out of both land and advancement built into the grievance that erupted as Mau Mau in the 1950s. The Kikuyu, with the Embu and Meru, bore the sharpest edge of settler colonialism and so produced its fiercest revolt, covered in depth in the Mau Mau and loyalist threads. Colonial rule then split the community itself, arming Kikuyu loyalists against Kikuyu fighters in what became partly a civil war. economy / politics / war ●●●

c. 1945 Kenya, the pamphlet before the return 0 cit. Around the end of the war Kenyatta wrote the short book Kenya: The Land of Conflict, a plain nationalist statement of the settler-versus-African struggle over land. It distilled fifteen years of argument into a call to organise. It marked his shift from scholar and delegate to political leader in waiting. economy / politics ●●

October 1945 A working-class and trade-union base at Manchester 0 cit. Unlike the earlier gatherings of scholars and professionals, the Manchester congress drew heavily on trade unionists, workers, and student activists from Africa and the Caribbean. This broader base gave the meeting a more radical and grassroots character. Delegates connected colonial freedom to the struggles of ordinary workers. economy / politics / society ●●

c. 1945 American supremacy is plain by war's end 0 cit. At the end of the Second World War the United States produced roughly half of the world's manufactured goods, held about two-thirds of the world's gold reserves, and accounted for around a third of world output. Its homeland was undamaged while the other great powers were exhausted or in ruins, a concentration of economic power without precedent in modern history. economy / technology / war ●●●

26 December 1945 The CFA franc is created for France's African colonies 0 cit. France creates the franc of the French Colonies of Africa, the CFA franc, on the same day it ratifies the Bretton Woods accords. The new currency is set at a fixed rate to the French franc and issued under French control. It becomes the money used across most of French Africa and outlasts independence. economy / politics ●●●

21 August 1945 Truman abruptly ends Lend-Lease 0 cit. Days after Japan's surrender, President Truman abruptly cancels Lend-Lease. The aid that had sustained Britain through the war stops almost overnight. Britain, exhausted and heavily in debt, is suddenly left to pay its own way with reserves it no longer has. economy / politics / war ●●●

6 December 1945 Keynes negotiates the Anglo-American Loan 0 cit. With Lend-Lease gone, John Maynard Keynes leads the British team seeking American help and returns with a loan rather than a gift. The Anglo-American Loan provides about 3.75 billion dollars at two percent interest. In return Britain agrees to make sterling freely convertible into dollars within a year, a condition that would soon prove dangerous. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

c. 1945 Financial primacy passes from London to Washington 0 cit. The sequence is documented fact: cash and carry, the forced sales, the drained reserves, Lend-Lease and its terms, Bretton Woods, and the 1945 loan together shifted the center of world finance from London to Washington. Some historians go further and argue the United States deliberately used the war to strip Britain of its assets and take its place as the leading power. Other historians counter that Britain was genuinely insolvent, and that the hard American terms reflected a suspicious Congress and ordinary self-interest rather than a single deliberate plan. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●●

7 May 1946 Founding of Sony 0 cit. Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita found Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo in bombed-out Tokyo, renamed Sony in 1958. Transistor radios, the Trinitron, the Walkman, and the PlayStation make it a symbol of Japan's postwar rise. culture / economy / technology ●●●●

15 July 1946 The Anglo-American Loan locks in Britain's dependence 0 cit. A near-bankrupt Britain accepted a large American loan on terms that required making the pound convertible, a condition that soon triggered a currency crisis. The deal confirmed that London now depended on Washington to stay solvent. economy / politics ●●

c. 1946 The US and European leadership convention contested 0 cit. By informal agreement the World Bank has always been led by an American and the IMF by a European. Critics argue this convention reflects the outsized influence of rich creditor nations over institutions that lend mainly to poorer ones. economy / politics ●●●●

1946 Milton Friedman joins the University of Chicago economics department 0 cit. Milton Friedman joins the economics faculty at the University of Chicago, where he would spend three decades building what became known as the Chicago School of economics. The department emphasized free markets, monetary discipline, and skepticism of government intervention, in direct contrast to the Keynesian consensus dominant at the time. economy ●●●

c. 1946 Britain builds a mixed economy through postwar nationalization 0 cit. The postwar Labour government took the Bank of England, coal, railways, electricity, gas, and steel into public ownership between 1946 and 1951. The state became the direct operator of large parts of industry alongside a private sector, the arrangement usually called the mixed economy. It set the pattern for Western Europe until the privatizations of the 1980s reversed much of it. economy / politics ●●

c. 1946 The Post-War Soldier-Settler Scheme 0 cit. After the Second World War the government ran a fresh European settlement scheme, recruiting British ex-servicemen and others to take up highland farms and enlarge the white population. It came just as pressure on African land was at its worst and settlers were pushing squatters off the same estates. The mismatch, more whites arriving on the land while Africans were being evicted from it, sharpened the grievance that soon exploded as Mau Mau. economy / politics ●●

July 1946 The Anglo-American Loan makes Britain a supplicant 0 cit. With Lend-Lease abruptly cut off at the end of the war, a near-bankrupt Britain negotiated a loan of roughly 3.75 billion dollars from the United States. The terms required Britain to make the pound freely convertible, a condition that triggered a sterling crisis in 1947 and underlined how far the balance of power had shifted. Correlli Barnett cites the episode as evidence of Britain's postwar illusions about its own strength. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

11 April 1946 France abolishes forced labour in its African colonies 0 cit. The law sponsored by Félix Houphouët-Boigny ends forced labour across French Africa, and the indigénat penal code is abolished the same year. Until then colonial economies relied on coerced labour and cash-crop extraction rather than services for the governed. The timing shows how far the colonial state was built to extract rather than to develop. economy / politics ●●

1947 Founding of Hyundai 0 cit. Chung Ju-yung founds the Hyundai construction company in Seoul. The chaebol expands into shipbuilding and cars, building the world's largest shipyard and helping drive South Korea's industrialization. economy ●●●

1947 Founding of LG 0 cit. Koo In-hwoi founds Lak Hui Chemical in Busan, making cosmetics and later Korea's first plastics. With its Goldstar electronics arm it becomes the LG chaebol, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates. economy ●●

10 April 1947 Founding of the Mont Pelerin Society 0 cit. Friedrich Hayek gathers 39 economists and intellectuals, including Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises, to defend classical liberalism against collectivism. The society becomes the seedbed of the neoliberal movement. economy / politics ●●●

10 April 1947 Mont Pelerin Society founded 0 cit. Economists and thinkers led by Friedrich Hayek founded the Mont Pelerin Society to defend free markets and classical liberalism. It became influential in the spread of free market economic ideas. economy / politics ●●●