Events, Verisoph

August 1934 Schacht becomes Minister of Economics and launches the New Plan 0 cit. Schacht took over the Economics Ministry and imposed the New Plan, using trade deals and exchange controls to steer resources toward rearmament. His management kept Germany's war buildup financed despite scarce foreign currency. economy / politics ●●●

1934 Canon began as Kwanon, named for a Buddhist deity 0 cit. The Japanese camera maker's first camera in 1934 was called Kwanon, after Kannon, also known as Guanyin, the Buddhist deity of mercy. The name was soon anglicized to Canon. economy / religion / technology ●●●

1934 Central Selling Organisation established 0 cit. De Beers formally organized its marketing arm as the Central Selling Organisation, a single channel through which the great majority of the world's rough diamonds were sold to a limited list of approved dealers. The CSO let De Beers stockpile diamonds and restrict supply to keep prices high, a cartel arrangement that lasted for most of the twentieth century. economy ●●●

8 November 1934 Swiss banking secrecy is written into law 0 cit. The Swiss Banking Act made it a criminal offense for a bank to reveal client information, hardening a tradition of secrecy into national law. Over the following decades this helped make Switzerland a hub for hidden wealth and a template for offshore finance. Bank secrecy gave corporations and wealthy individuals a legal way to place money beyond the reach of their home governments. economy / politics ●●

1934 After the Crash, the SEC makes audits the law 0 cit. In response to the 1929 crash and the fraud exposed in the Depression, Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission and required public companies to file audited financial statements. Independent audit stopped being a courtesy to investors and became a legal duty, which vastly expanded the accounting profession and its power. economy / politics ●●●

1934 Kuznets invents a measure for the whole economy 0 cit. The economist Simon Kuznets built the first national income accounts for the United States, giving government a single figure for the nation's output during the Depression. The work grew into Gross Domestic Product. Kuznets himself warned that the measure left out much of what matters and that the welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from it, a caution often forgotten. economy / politics / science ●●●

8 November 1934 Switzerland makes banking secrecy a crime 0 cit. The Swiss Federal Banking Act of 1934 made it a criminal offence for a bank to reveal a client's identity. The law turned discretion into a legal wall and cemented Switzerland's role as the world's private vault. A popular story that the law was written to shield Jewish savings from the Nazis has been challenged by historians, who trace it to an earlier French tax scandal. economy / politics ●●●

8 November 1934 The Federal Banking Act codifies banking secrecy 0 cit. Switzerland's banking law made the disclosure of a client's account a criminal offence, giving banking secrecy the force of the penal code. Combined with a neutral, stable state, this drew foreign wealth into Swiss banks and helped build the country's reputation as the world's safe. A popular story holds that the law was written to shield Jewish money from the Nazis, but historians attribute it mainly to a bank-spying scandal and to domestic economic interests. economy ●●●

1934 Schacht engineers Nazi rearmament finance 0 cit. As Reichsbank president and economics minister, Hjalmar Schacht designed the financial machinery that funded German rearmament, including off-the-books credit instruments known as Mefo bills that hid the true scale of military spending. His skill kept the regime solvent while it rebuilt its forces. He was later tried at Nuremberg and acquitted. economy / politics / war ●●●

c. 1934 Standard Oil fuel additives reach German aviation 1 cit. Through joint ventures tied to the tetraethyl lead process, know-how for high-octane aviation fuel additives passed into German hands in the 1930s. The additive was important for military aircraft engines. The arrangement is documented in corporate records and later investigations, and is a business-history fact rather than a claim of intent. economy / technology ●●

16 September 1935 Founding of Morgan Stanley 0 cit. When the Glass-Steagall Act forces J.P. Morgan to choose between commercial and investment banking, partners Henry Morgan and Harold Stanley spin off a new securities firm. Morgan Stanley becomes one of Wall Street's leading investment banks. economy ●●●

1 April 1935 Founding of the Reserve Bank of India 0 cit. The Reserve Bank of India begins operations in Calcutta as the central bank of British India, later moving to Bombay. Nationalized in 1949, it manages the currency and banking system of what becomes the world's most populous country. economy / politics ●●●●

14 August 1935 Social Security Act 0 cit. Franklin Roosevelt signs the act creating old-age insurance funded by payroll taxes, plus unemployment insurance and aid to dependent children. Social Security becomes the largest program of the federal government and the anchor of the American welfare state. economy / society ●●●●

16 September 1935 Morgan Stanley splits from J.P. Morgan 0 cit. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 forced banks to separate commercial and investment banking. J.P. Morgan stayed in commercial banking while partners founded the investment bank Morgan Stanley in September 1935. economy / politics ●●●●

1935 The Great Seal's reverse is added to the dollar bill 0 cit. Under President Franklin Roosevelt, both sides of the Great Seal were placed on the back of the one-dollar bill, giving the pyramid and eye their mass circulation. The choice was made by officials including Agriculture Secretary Henry Wallace, and the seal itself dates to 1782. culture / economy ●●

1935 Eye and pyramid added to the dollar bill 1 cit. At the suggestion of Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved placing both sides of the Great Seal, including the eye-and-pyramid reverse, on the redesigned one-dollar bill. Wallace was drawn to esoteric and mystical ideas, and Roosevelt was himself a Freemason, which has fed speculation about hidden Masonic intent; but the documented record shows the design was an adaptation of the 1782 seal, not a new Masonic emblem. economy / society ●●

1935 Eye of Providence placed on the one-dollar bill 0 cit. At the urging of Vice President Henry Wallace, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau approves putting both sides of the Great Seal, including the pyramid and Eye of Providence, on the redesigned one-dollar bill. The choice reflected Wallace's interest in the Seal's symbolism, not an Illuminati or Masonic directive; claims that the dollar bill proves ongoing Illuminati control of US government are widely circulated but are not supported by documentary evidence and are treated here as contested. economy / politics ●●

1935 A bit part in Sanders of the River 0 cit. Short of money, Kenyatta took a small part as an extra in the 1935 film Sanders of the River, whose leads were played by the American singer Paul Robeson and Nina Mae McKinney. The film was a celebration of benign British rule in Africa that Robeson later disowned. For Kenyatta it was one of many odd jobs that kept him afloat in London. culture / economy ●

1935 Makhan Singh builds militant trade unionism 0 cit. The Sikh activist Makhan Singh reorganised the Labour Trade Union of Kenya into the Labour Trade Union of East Africa, pushing a militant, multiracial model of organised labour. He argued that workers should combine across race against colonial employers. He is widely regarded as a father of the Kenyan trade union movement. economy / politics ●●

c. 1935 Pass laws and grazing controls hem in Somali movement 3 cit. Under the closed-district regime, Somalis needed permits to move between areas, and the state controlled grazing and stock across the north. The rules cut into the mobility that pastoral life depended on. They also kept the region sealed from the wider colony and its economy. economy / politics ●●

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 ●●

February 1936 Publication of The General Theory 2 cit. John Maynard Keynes publishes The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, arguing that governments must manage demand to prevent mass unemployment. Keynesian economics dominates Western policy for the next four decades. economy ●●●●

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 The 1937 Ordinance Squeezes the Squatters 1 cit. The Resident Labourers Ordinance of 1937, enforced from 1940, let district councils in the Highlands slash the land and livestock squatters were allowed and raise their labour days sharply. Squatter cattle were culled, cultivation plots cut, and families who had built up herds and farms saw them destroyed. This deliberate squeezing of squatter life in the 1930s and 1940s turned a settled tenantry into an angry, dispossessed mass and fed the land grievance behind Mau Mau. 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 ●

April 1937 Hicks turns Keynes into the IS-LM diagram 1 cit. John Hicks published "Mr. Keynes and the Classics: A Suggested Interpretation" in Econometrica in 1937. The IS-LM model made Keynesian economics teachable as a two-market diagram linking income, saving, investment, money demand and interest rates, even as later Keynesians argued that the simplification muted Keynes on uncertainty. economy / science ●●●●

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 ●●

July 1938 Muindi Mbingu and the Ukamba destocking protest 6 cit. Samuel Muindi Mbingu led the Ukamba Members Association against a colonial policy that forced Kamba herders to sell off cattle the government judged to be surplus. In July 1938 he led about three thousand livestock owners on a march to Nairobi, where they camped in protest. The government arrested him in October and deported him to Lamu, but the pressure worked and compulsory destocking was dropped by the end of the year. He became a lasting figure of Kamba resistance. 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 ●●●

21 March 1939 Transfer of Czechoslovak gold through the BIS 1 cit. After Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, the BIS acted on instructions to move gold held for the Czech National Bank into an account controlled by Germany's Reichsbank. The episode became the most documented controversy about the bank's wartime conduct. economy / politics / war ●●●●

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 ●●●

March 1939 The Bank for International Settlements handles Reichsbank gold 1 cit. The Bank for International Settlements, the Basel clearing house owned by central banks, transferred gold belonging to Czechoslovakia to the German Reichsbank after Germany seized the country in 1939. During the war it went on accepting Reichsbank gold, some of it looted. The transactions later became a case study in how a neutral financial body kept dealing with the Reich. diplomacy / economy ●●●

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 ●●●

1 January 1940 to 1945 The BIS keeps operating under wartime pressure 1 cit. With American Thomas McKittrick as president, the BIS stayed open throughout World War II while much of its board and business were tied to Axis powers. Critics later charged that it handled looted gold and served German interests, while defenders said it preserved a neutral channel among central banks. economy / politics / 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 ●●

c. 1941 The Swiss National Bank buys looted Nazi gold 2 cit. Through the war the Swiss National Bank bought well over a billion francs of gold from Germany's Reichsbank, providing hard currency that helped Germany pay for war materials. Much of that gold had been looted from the central banks of occupied countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, and some came from the possessions of Holocaust victims. In the 1946 Washington Agreement Switzerland paid 250 million francs to the Allies without admitting wrongdoing; historians divide over whether the trade was active complicity or the pragmatism of a cornered small state. 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 ●●●

c. 1942 The War Strengthens the Chiefs and the Loyalist Administration 6 cit. The wartime state leaned hard on the African population, pressing men into the army and carrier corps, requisitioning cattle and grain, fixing crop prices, and demanding communal labour, and it worked through the government chiefs and headmen to do it. Delivering recruits, taxes, and produce made the chiefs more powerful and more resented, and the war rewarded the cooperative administrative class with authority and patronage. Historians note that this deepening of chiefly power widened the gap between the loyalist establishment and the ordinary people who bore the war's burdens. economy / politics / war ●●

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 ●●●

1 July 1944 Bretton Woods Conference sets the postwar monetary order 1 cit. Delegates from forty-four nations agreed to fix exchange rates to the US dollar, which was convertible to gold. The conference also created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. 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 ●●●

July 1944 Keynes loses the argument to Harry Dexter White 1 cit. John Maynard Keynes, leading the British delegation, proposed an International Clearing Union and a neutral reserve unit he called bancor to spread the burden of adjustment between creditors and debtors. The American negotiator Harry Dexter White rejected the plan in favor of a dollar-centered system, and the United States, holding most of the world's gold and capital, got the design it wanted. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●

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 ●●