1929 | Political Events
Political Events
Josef Stalin expels Leon Trotsky from the Soviet Union in January, 14 months after having him thrown out of the Communist Party on charges of engaging in antiparty activities (see 1924). Stalin removes Trotsky's threat to his dictatorship; Trotsky will settle at Mexico City (see 1940). Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, 41, is expelled from the Communist Party November 17 after having headed the Third International since 1926. Other members of the rightist opposition are expelled, leaving Stalin to rule as undisputed dictator (see 1934).
Tadzhikistan becomes a Soviet Socialist republic.
Yugoslavia's Aleksandr I proclaims a dictatorship January 5 and dissolves the Croat and other parties January 21 (see 1921). The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes becomes Yugoslavia officially October 3 in a move to end historic divisions of the realm (see 1934).
Austrian statesman Adolf Braun dies at Berlin May 13 at age 67 (he founded the Social Democratic Party); former German general Otto Liman von Sanders of 1915 Gallipoli fame dies at Munich August 22 at age 74; former German chancellor (and 1926 Nobel Peace Prize winner) Gustav Stresemann suffers two strokes and dies at Berlin October 3 at age 51 as the Deutsche Volkspartei (DVP) that he founded moves closer to the Nazis.
Former French Army marshal Ferdinand Foch dies at Paris March 20 at age 77 as construction begins along the Franco-German and Franco-Italian borders of a heavily fortified line that was first proposed by Gen. Joffre as a barrier against the "beast that sleeps on the other side of the Rhine." Promoted by former minister of war Paul Painlevé, it will be named for the new minister of war André (-Louis-René) Maginot, 52, who will use his political influence next year to win a Senate appropriation of 2.9 billion francs for the carefully planned project, promising that it will create jobs and give France time to mobilize in the event of a German invasion. Former premier Georges Clemenceau dies at Paris November 24 at age 88 as work continues on the fortifications, designed to extend for about 150 miles from Sedan in the west to beyond Wissembourg in the east, with some 50 some heavily armed bunkers, each within cannon range of another, several of them employing former German defense works but most buried at least 100 feet underground beneath hills and ridges, generally following the contours of the natural terrain (see 1934).
Algerian nationalist leader Ahmed Messali Hadj, 31, calls for a revolt against French colonial rule, and although French authorities dissolve his North African Star (Etoile Nord-Africaine) and will imprison him at times, he will continue to agitate for independence (see 1946).
Former British prime minister Archibald P. Primrose, 5th earl of Roseberry, dies at Epsom, Surrey, May 21 at age 82. Britain's Labour Party wins the general election May 30 and Ramsay MacDonald forms a second cabinet June 5 that will hold power for more than 2 years. British voters elect 13 women members of Parliament May 31. Socialist Prime Minister MacDonald appoints Margaret Bondfield minister of labour June 7 as more workers queue up for the dole. Britain resumes diplomatic relations with Moscow October 1.
The Lateran Treaties signed by Benito Mussolini February 11 and ratified by the Italian parliament June 7 restore temporal power to the pope over the 108.7-acre Vatican City in Rome. The Italian government agrees to pay an indemnity of 750 million lire in cash and 1 billion lire in government bonds, and the pope leaves the Vatican July 25 after years of virtual imprisonment. The papacy recognizes the establishment of the kingdom of Italy and announces permanent neutrality in military and diplomatic conflicts worldwide.
Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson, 51, closes the U.S. State Department's code-breaking room, saying, "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail." Wilmington, Ind.-born cryptographer Herbert O. (Osborn) Yardley, now 40, broke the Japanese code in 1921 and won the Distinguished Service Medal for his feat, but Stimson's order shuts down the so-called American Black Chamber that Yardley has headed at Washington, D.C., to intercept and decipher foreign communications (see 1938; CIA, 1947).
The Barakzai dynasty that has ruled Afghanistan since 1826 ends October 17 as King Amanullah, now 37, abdicates and flees west in a Rolls Royce along with 17 of his followers after a 10-year reign in which he has drawn up the country's first written constitution but failed to modernize Afghanistan's tribal society, although he has tried to model a secular government along the lines of Turkey's, abolished slavery, attacked corruption, created a government budget, and reorganized taxes. Mohammad Nadir Khan and his brothers take over the government and Nadir Khan is elected shah by a tribal assembly; he begins a bloody persecution of the opposition and will reign until his assassination in 1933.
Japanese voters go to the polls in the last parliamentary elections that will be held for more than 16 years, dropping their ballots into big red lacquer boxes. Twenty percent of the population is eligible to vote as compared with 1.1 percent in 1890, but suffrage remains limited to men of 25 and older. Japanese militarists will soon take over the government and put an end to free elections.
Former cabinet minister Hakushaku Goto Shimpei dies at Tokyo April 13 at age 71, having modernized the Taiwanese economy and made the island a financially independent Japanese colony.
Mexican strongman Plutarco Elias Calles and his cronies found the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that will control Mexico for 71 years, using corrupt means to rig elections and keep itself in power (see 1928).