1924 | Political Events
Political Events
V. I. Lenin dies of sclerosis at Gorky January 21 at age 53. Petrograd is renamed Leningrad, and a triumvirate takes power as Josef Stalin begins a power struggle with Leon Trotsky (see 1918). He makes Mikhail V. Frunze deputy people's commissar for war in March (see 1925). Ruling with Stalin are Lev Borisovich Kamenev (originally Rosenfeld), 40, and Grigori Evseevich Zinoviev (originally Hirsch Apfelbaum), 40 (see 1926).
Britain's first Labour government takes office January 22 under (James) Ramsay MacDonald, 57, who opposed British participation in the war. He recognizes the USSR February 1, Britain signs a commercial treaty in which the Soviet Union gives British goods most-favored nation treatment, Italy recognizes the USSR February 7, France follows suit October 28, but the United States refuses recognition unless Moscow acknowledges its foreign debts and restores alien property, a position stated last year by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes.
Italy annexes Fiume March 9; Benito Mussolini's Fascists use pressure tactics to gain control of the electoral machinery and poll 65 percent of the vote in elections held early in April (see 1923). They conduct terrorist attacks on leftists, socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti, 39, who details their illegal acts of violence in his book The Fascisti Exposed. Matteotti denounces them May 30 in a speech to the Chamber of Deputies. Six Fascist squadristi kidnap him, murder him June 10, and quickly bury his body outside Rome. Most of the non-Fascist third of the chamber secedes June 15 (the Aventine succession), vowing not to return until the government has been cleared of complicity in the Matteotti murder. Demands are made that the Fascist militia be disbanded, Mussolini disavows any connection with the murder, his opponents are unable to keep the public's anger alive, the six suspects in the murder are set free, Mussolini imposes strict press censorship July 1, and he forbids opposition meetings August 3. Prominent Fascist Party members will be tried for the Matteotti murder in 1926, but none will receive more than a light sentence. Italy signs the Treaty of Rapallo September 17.
French general Robert-Georges Nivelle dies at Paris March 22 at age 67, diplomat Paul Cambon at Paris May 29 at age 81; President Millerand resigns June 11 under pressure from Radical Socialist Party leader Edouard Herriot, who says Millerand has tilted to the right. Gaston Doumerge becomes president June 13, Herriot premier June 14.
Britain's Labour government falls November 4 after the general election October 29 has given the Conservatives a great victory, partly through the release October 25 of the so-called Zinoviev letter, allegedly written by Comintern chief Grigori E. Zinoviev and calling on British communists to "have cells in all units of the troops," especially those based in big cities or near munitions plants (it is possibly a forgery). Statesman Edwin Samuel Montagu dies at London November 15 at age 45, having resigned in 1922 over differences with regard to Prime Minister Lloyd George's policy toward Turkey. Stanley Baldwin heads a new government which denounces British treaties with Russia November 21; he will remain prime minister until 1929.
The Ottoman dynasty founded in 1290 by Osman the Conquerer ends March 3 as Turkey's president Mustafa Kemal forces a measure through a protesting assembly that abolishes the Muslim caliphate and banishes all members of the house of Osman (see 1923; 1930). Kemal bans all Kurdish associations and shuts down Kurdish schools and publications, but the Kurds will continue to struggle for their rights.
Albania proclaims herself a republic December 24 after centuries of domination by the Ottoman Turks (see 1912; kingdom, 1928).
Persia's premier Reza Khan Pahlevi establishes government control throughout the country (see 1921). He has subdued the Bakhtiari chiefs of the southwest and the Sheik Khazal of Mohammerah, who has been supported by the British and Anglo-Persian Oil Co. (see 1925).
Moroccan forces under the command of Rif president Abd el-Krim defeat another Spanish army (see 1923). French forces capture Abd el-Krim's supply base in the Wargha Valley, but he begins a drive against the French and by next year will have reached close to Fez (see 1926).
The Wahabi sultan of Nejd Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud conquers the Hejaz, forces the 68-year-old Hashimite king Husein ibn Ali to abdicate in favor of his eldest son Ali ibn Husein, 46, and enters Mecca October 20 (see 1904). His Ikhwan allies want to spread Wahhabism beyond Arabia, they will help him take Medina next year, but when he tries to restrain them they will rebel (see Saudi Arabia, 1926).
South Africa's 10-year-old Nationalist Party wins election and its founder James Hertzog becomes the nation's first Afrikaner prime minister, beginning a regime that will repress dissent (see 1933).
Japan's prime minister Gonnohyoe Yamamoto resigns in February when his cabinet accepts "responsibility" for an attempt on the life of the prince regent (see 1923). A new coalition government comes to power in June under the leadership of former foreign minister Takaaki Kato, now 64. His Constitutional Party (Kenseikai) will win a majority in the Diet next year, enabling Kato to name his own cabinet and begin an era in which universal male suffrage will be enacted, the power of the House of Peers reduced, moderate social legislation introduced, and the size and influence of the military sharply cut.
Geopolitics of the Pacific Ocean (Geopolitik des Pazifischen Ozeans) by Munich-born political geographer Karl (Ernst) Haushofer, 55, adapts a misinterpretation of the late Friedrich Ratzel's 1901 essay "Lebensraum" and uses imperialist ideas put forward in 1904 and 1919 by Halford J. Mackinder. Haushofer traveled to the Orient in 1908, learned Japanese (he already knew French, Polish, and Russian), rose to the rank of general in the Great War, and has studied Japan's expansionist policies; he concludes that Germans and Japanese have a lot in common and that the Japanese military code bushido can be a model for Germany's military (see 1934).
Russia gives up the czar's "ill-gotten gains" at the expense of China, returns her Boxer Rebellion indemnity of 1900 for use in Chinese education, and sends advisers to the 10-day Guomindang (Kuomintang) national congress at Guangzhou (Canton), which ends January 30. At the persuasion of Comintern agent Mikhail Markovich Borodin (originally Mikhail Gruzenberg), 39, Sun Yat-sen admits communists to the Guomindang (see 1911). Northern warlords Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tso-lin) and Feng Yu-Xiang (Feng Yü-hsiang) defeat their rival Wu Peifu in a great battle near (Tianjin) Tientsin, occupy Beijing (Peking), establish a military dictatorship, and call Duan Qirui (Tuan Chi'-jui) out of retirement to run the new government and mediate between them. The former emperor Pu yi (P'u-i) sneaks out of the Forbidden City and leaves Beijing (see 1926; Chiang Kai-shek, 1925).
A Mongolian People's Republic modeled on the Soviet political structure is established at Ulan Bator and will continue as such until 1991 (see 1921), but China will not recognize the country's independence until 1946.
Former president Woodrow Wilson dies at Washington February 3 at age 67; his erstwhile opponent Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge (R. Mass.) at Boston November 9 at age 74, having led the successful opposition to the League of Nations favored by Wilson.
President Coolidge wins election in his own right on a platform of "Coolidge Prosperity." Unable to decide between President Wilson's son-in-law William Gibbs McAdoo of California and New York's Roman Catholic governor Alfred E. Smith, the Democrats have nominated New York corporation lawyer John W. Davis on the 103rd ballot at the convention in New York's Madison Square Garden (supporters of Gov. Smith and William G. McAdoo were deadlocked), but Davis wins only 136 electoral votes and 29 percent of the popular vote against 382 electoral votes and 54 percent of the popular vote for Coolidge, who wins 15.7 million votes to Davis's 8.4 million. (Progressive Party candidate Robert M. La Follette gains support from the farm bloc, the Socialist Party, the AFL, and numerous intellectuals but carries only his home state of Wisconsin, winning 13 electoral votes and 17 percent of the popular vote.)
Former Texas governor Miriam A. "Ma" Ferguson runs for governor in her own right and is elected, becoming the first woman to win a state governorship (see 1917). Now 49, she has campaigned on promises to exonerate her husband, weaken the power of the Ku Klux Klan, and bring the state budget under control. Although she will not be able to reduce state spending (Texas governors have little power), she will push through a law forbidding anyone (including a Klan member) to wear a mask in public, get the legislature to grant her husband "legislative amnesty" (the amnesty will later be ruled unconstitutional), and grant executive clemency to 3,500 prisoners.
Liberia rejects Marcus Garvey's plan for resettlement of U.S. blacks, fearing that his motive is to foment revolution (see human rights [Garvey], 1920). Garvey will be convicted next year of fraudulent dealings in the now-bankrupt Black Star Steamship Co. he has founded. President Coolidge will commute his 5-year sentence, but Garvey will be deported to Jamaica in 1927 (see religion [Rastafarians], 1930).
Cuban voters elect Liberal Party candidate Gerardo Machado y Morales, 52, president by an overwhelming majority. A hero of the 1895-1898 war of independence, Machado has succeeded in business; the middle class considers him just the man to restore order to a society that has been disrupted by a slide in sugar prices; and he embarks on a program of public works (but see 1927).
Peru's American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) is founded at Mexico City by intellectual Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, 29, who calls for reforms that would help landless peasants, urban laborers, Indians, and other disadvantaged groups. The military will bar him three times from assuming the presidency; he will spend much of his life in hiding, in exile, or in prison; but his writings on economics and political theory will have wide influence throughout Latin America for the next half century.
Former Venezuelan dictator Cipriano Castro dies in exile at San Juan, Puerto Rico, December 4 at age 66, having spent most of the last 16 years plotting a return to power.