Portal:1920s

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The 1920s Portal

The 1920s (pronounced "nineteen-twenties"; often shortened to the "'20s" or the "Twenties") was a decade that began on January 1, 1920, and ended on December 31, 1929. Primarily known for the economic boom that occurred in the Western World following the end of World War I (1914–1918), the decade is frequently referred to as the "Roaring Twenties" or the "Jazz Age" in America and Western Europe, and the "Golden Twenties" in Germany, while French speakers refer to the period as the "Années folles" ('crazy years') to emphasize the decade's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism.

The devastating Wall Street crash in October 1929 is generally viewed as a harbinger of the end of 1920s prosperity in North America and Europe. In the Soviet Union, the New Economic Policy was created by the Bolsheviks in 1921, to be replaced by the first five-year plan in 1928. The 1920s saw the rise of radical political movements, with the Red Army triumphing against White movement forces in the Russian Civil War, and the emergence of far-right political movements in Europe. In 1922, the fascist leader Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy. Other dictators that emerged included Józef Piłsudski in Poland, and Peter and Alexander Karađorđević in Yugoslavia. First-wave feminism made advances, with women gaining the right to vote in the United States (1920), Albania (1920), Ireland (1921), and with suffrage being expanded in Britain to all women over 21 years old (1928).

In Turkey, nationalist forces defeated Greece, France, Armenia, and Britain in the Turkish War of Independence, leading to the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), a treaty more favorable to Turkey than the earlier proposed Treaty of Sèvres. The war also led to the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate. Nationalist revolts also occurred in Ireland (1919–1921) and Syria (1925–1927). Under Mussolini, Italy pursued a more aggressive domestic and foreign policy, leading to the nigh-eradication of the Sicilian Mafia and the Second Italo-Senussi War in Libya respectively. In 1927, China erupted into a civil war between the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China (ROC) and forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Civil wars also occurred in Paraguay (1922–1923), Ireland (1922–1923), Honduras (1924), Nicaragua (1926–1927), and Afghanistan (1928–1929). Saudi forces conquered Jabal Shammar and subsequently, Hejaz.

A severe famine occurred in Russia (1921–1922) due to the combined effects of economic disturbance because of the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War, exacerbated by rail systems that could not distribute food efficiently, leading to 5 million deaths. Another severe famine occurred in China (1928–1930), leading to 6 million deaths. The Spanish flu pandemic (1918–1920) and Russian typhus epidemic (1918–1922), which had begun in the previous decade, caused 25–50 million and 2–3 million deaths respectively. Major natural disasters of this decade include the 1920 Haiyuan earthquake (258,707~273,407 deaths), 1922 Shantou typhoon (50,000–100,000 deaths), 1923 Great Kantō earthquake (105,385–142,800 deaths), and 1927 Gulang earthquake (40,912 deaths).

Silent films were popular in this decade, with the highest-grossing film of this decade being either the American silent epic adventure-drama film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ or the American silent war drama film The Big Parade, depending on the metrics used. Sinclair Lewis was a popular author in the United States in the 1920s, with his books Main Street and Elmer Gantry becoming best-sellers. Best-selling books outside the US included the Czech book The Good Soldier Švejk, which sold 20 million copies. Songs of this decade included "Mack the Knife" and "Tiptoe Through the Tulips".

During the 1920s, the world population increased from 1.87 to 2.05 billion, with approximately 700 million births and 525 million deaths in total. (Full article...)

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Soldiers of the Don Army in 1919
A White Russian infantry division in 1920
Soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Army
Leon Trotsky in 1918
Hanging of Yekaterinoslav Red Guards by Austro-Hungarian troops in 1918

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire, lasting from 1917 to 1922, sparked by the overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.

The Russian monarchy ended with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II during the February Revolution, and Russia was in a state of political flux. A tense summer culminated in the October Revolution, where the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government of the new Russian Republic. Bolshevik seizure of power was not universally accepted, and the country descended into a conflict which became a full-scale civil war in May–June 1918. The two largest combatants were the Red Army, fighting for the establishment of a Bolshevik-led socialist state headed by Vladimir Lenin, and the forces known as the White movement (and its White Army), led mainly by the right-leaning officers of the Russian Empire, united around the figure of Alexander Kolchak. In addition, rival militant socialists, notably the Ukrainian anarchists of the Makhnovshchina and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, were involved in conflict against the Bolsheviks. They, as well as non-ideological green armies, opposed the Bolsheviks, the Whites and the foreign interventionists. Thirteen foreign states intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied intervention, whose primary goal was re-establishing the Eastern Front of World War I. Three foreign states of the Central Powers also intervened, rivaling the Allied intervention with the main goal of retaining the territory they had received in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia. (Full article...)

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Haile Selassie I was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. The heir to a dynasty that traced its origins to the 13th century, and from there by tradition back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, he is a defining figure in both Ethiopian and African history. Selassie is revered as the religious symbol for God incarnate among the Rastafari movement, whose name comes from Ras (literally "Head," an Ethiopian title equivalent to Duke), and Tafari Makonnen, Selassie's pre-coronation name.

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...that bead crochet (pictured) was a popular method of creating women's fashion accessories during the 1920s?
... that in the 1920s and '30s, various countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Chile issued Art Deco stamps?
... that in 1926, Albert Einstein solved the tea leaf paradox, which states that if the tea in a teacup is stirred, the tea leaves will collect in the middle rather than at the edges?

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Portrait, c. 1920–1923

Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular presidents at the time of his death. After that, a number of scandals were exposed that greatly damaged his reputation.

Harding lived in rural Ohio all his life, except when political service took him elsewhere. As a young man, he bought The Marion Star and built it into a successful newspaper. Harding served in the Ohio State Senate from 1900 to 1904, and was lieutenant governor for two years. He was defeated for governor in 1910, but was elected to the United States Senate in 1914—the state's first direct election for that office. Harding ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1920, but was considered a long shot before the convention. When the leading candidates could not garner a majority, and the convention deadlocked, support for Harding increased, and he was nominated on the tenth ballot. He conducted a front porch campaign, remaining mostly in Marion and allowing people to come to him. He promised a return to normalcy of the pre–World War I period, and defeated Democratic nominee James M. Cox in a landslide, becoming the first sitting senator to be elected president. (Full article...)

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... that the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District has 102 properties within 12 blocks and contains "excellent examples of the predominant architecture styles of the 1920s and 1930s"?
... that a 1920s reviewer considered Hammond's Hard Lines "dangerously experimental ground for boys' fiction"?
... that 1920s belles-lettres books published by the State Publishing House of Ukraine sold out more rapidly than similar books published elsewhere in the Soviet Union, despite the higher average price?
... that Masoud El Amaratly, one of Iraq's most popular folk singers in the 1920s (recording featured), was a mustarjil?
... that despite being rivals since the 1920s, the 2010 NFC Championship Game was only the second time the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers had ever met in the playoffs?
... that much of Archcliffe Fort was demolished in the 1920s to allow for expansion of a railway?

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The following are images from various 1920s-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1929 (from 1920s)
Image 2Palacio Barolo, designed by Mario Palanti. (from 1920s)
Image 3Paavo Nurmi in 1924 Summer Olympics (from 1920s)
Image 4Frank Lloyd Wright, 1926 (from 1920s)
Image 5From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Seán Hogan during the Irish War of Independence, 1920; prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol, 1921, in accordance with the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States throughout the entire decade; in 1927, Charles Lindbergh embarks on the first solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris on the Spirit of St. Louis; a crowd gathering on Wall Street after the 1929 stock market crash, which led to the Great Depression; Benito Mussolini and fascist Blackshirts during the March on Rome in 1922; the People's Liberation Army attacking government defensive positions in Shandong, during the Chinese Civil War; the women's suffrage campaign leads to numerous countries granting women the right to vote and be elected; Babe Ruth becomes the most famous baseball player of the time. (from 1920s)
Image 6D. W. Griffith at a rolltop desk, c. 1925 (from 1920s)
Image 7Irving Berlin (left) and Al Jolson, c. 1927 (from 1920s)
Image 8Gabriel Narutowicz (from 1920s)
Image 9Robert Goddard and his rocket, 1926 (from 1920s)
Image 10George Grosz in 1921 (from 1920s)
Image 11Albert Einstein, 1921 (from 1920s)
Image 12Thompson submachine gun (1921 model) (from 1920s)
Image 13The period from the end of the First World War until the start of the Depression in 1929 is known as the "Jazz Age". (from 1920s)
Image 14Michael Collins (Irish leader) (from 1920s)
Image 15The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) is created in 1922. (from 1920s)
Image 16Spanish troops in San Sebastián, prior to their departure to the Rif War (from 1920s)
Image 17Georgia O'Keeffe in 1920, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz (from 1920s)
Image 181925 Ford Model T. A typical 1920s car. (from 1920s)
Image 19Babe Ruth in 1920 (from 1920s)
Image 202 out of 10 best-selling American books in the 1920s were written by Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951). (from 1920s)
Image 21Buster Keaton in the 1922 short film The Frozen North (from 1920s)
Image 22Benito Mussolini and Fascist Blackshirts during the March on Rome in 1922 (from 1920s)
Image 23Pancho Villa (from 1920s)
Image 24Crowd gathering after the Wall Street crash of 1929 (from 1920s)
Image 25The British and French colonial empires in 1920 (from 1920s)
Image 26Adolf Hitler (standing) delivers a speech in February 1925. (from 1920s)
Image 27Charlie Chaplin during the 1920s (from 1920s)
Image 28Dow Jones Industrial, 1928–1930 (from 1920s)
Image 29Map of the world from 1920, two years after World War I (from 1920s)
Image 301920s phone (from 1920s)
Image 31Prohibition agents emptying barrels of alcohol (from 1920s)
Image 32The most memorable fashion trend of the Roaring Twenties was undoubtedly the "flapper" look. (from 1920s)