World map in 1930

Border history

The interactive map lets you inspect named territories in 1930 and compare them to earlier or later snapshots on the timeline.

Biographical context

Meet figures alive in, or close to, 1930 and move from political geography to the people connected to the period.

Era-based reading

The related chronicles below provide long-form reading tied closely to the modern period.

1930

Central Plains War (China)

Kuomintang (Chiang Kai-shek) vs Anti-Chiang Warlord Coalition (Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang)

The largest conflict of China's Warlord Era, involving nearly one million soldiers. Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government fought a massive coalition of warlords. The war caused 250,000 casualties and nearly bankrupted the Nationalist government.

Key battles and events: Battle along the Longhai Railway (1930); Zhang Xueliang's intervention (1930)

1927 – 1949

Chinese Civil War

Nationalists (Kuomintang) vs Communists (CPC)

A decades-long struggle between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and Mao Zedong's Communists — interrupted by WWII, then resumed until the Communists won in 1949, founding the People's Republic of China.

Key battles and events: Shanghai Massacre (1927); Long March (1934–1935)

1927 – 1933

Sandino Rebellion (Nicaragua)

Sandinista rebels (Augusto César Sandino) vs United States Marines, Nicaraguan National Guard

Guerrilla war waged by Augusto César Sandino against the U.S. Marine occupation of Nicaragua. Despite U.S. air superiority (including the first Marine Corps dive-bombing attack at Ocotal), Sandino's forces fought for six years until the Marines withdrew.

Key battles and events: Battle of Ocotal (1927); El Bramadero ambush (1928)

1919 – 1939

Waziristan Campaigns

British India vs Waziri and Mahsud tribes

Decades of British campaigns in Waziristan's mountainous terrain proved that the region was nearly impossible to pacify — a lesson that would be relearned by NATO forces in the 21st century.

Key battles and events: Mahsud Campaign (1919-1920); Pink's War (1925)

1916 – 1934

Basmachi Movement

Basmachi rebels (Central Asian resistance) vs Soviet Union

Central Asian resistance fighters waged a guerrilla war against Soviet Bolshevik rule across Turkestan, continuing to fight for nearly two decades after the Russian Revolution.

Key battles and events: Kokand uprising (1918); Enver Pasha's campaign (1921-1922)

1915 – 1934

U.S. Occupation of Haiti

United States Marines vs Haitian Caco guerrillas (Charlemagne Péralte)

Nearly two-decade American military occupation triggered by political instability. Faced sustained guerrilla resistance from the Caco movement led by Charlemagne Péralte. The occupation killed approximately 15,000 Haitians and displaced 50,000 peasants.

Key battles and events: Caco insurgency raids (1918-1920); Assassination of Péralte (1919)

1911 – 1932

Italo-Senussi War

Kingdom of Italy vs Senussi Order (Omar Mukhtar)

A brutal 20-year colonial war in Libya. Italy's pacification campaign under General Graziani included concentration camps, mass executions, and forced displacement of the entire Cyrenaican population. Resistance hero Omar Mukhtar was publicly hanged in 1931.

Key battles and events: Battle of El Agheila (1915); Kufra Oasis campaign (1931)

1898 – 1934

Banana Wars

United States vs Various Caribbean and Central American forces

A series of US military interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean to protect American commercial interests and enforce the Roosevelt Corollary. US Marines occupied Haiti, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and intervened in Mexico and Honduras.

Key battles and events: US occupation of Nicaragua (1912–1933); US occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)

Poland / United States

Abraham Joshua Heschel

1907 – 1972

Jewish theologian, philosopher, civil rights activist, prophetic voice of the twentieth century

Switzerland

Carl Jung

1875 – 1961

Analytical psychology, archetypes, collective unconscious, psychological types

France / Lithuania

Emmanuel Levinas

1906 – 1995

Philosopher, phenomenologist, ethicist, Talmudic scholar

British India / England / Burma / Spain

George Orwell

1903 – 1950

Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, anti-totalitarian essays, and the invention of Big Brother, doublethink, and Newspeak

United States

Henry Ford

1863 – 1947

Assembly line mass production, Model T automobile, $5 workday, Ford Motor Company

India / South Africa

Mahatma Gandhi

1869 – 1948

Nonviolent resistance, Indian independence, civil rights pioneer

Built 1926 · North America

Basilica of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre

Patronal shrine of Cuba in the hills above Santiago (built 1926, declared a basilica in 1977), housing the venerated Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre statue discovered by sailors in 1612

Built 1920 · Africa

Namugongo Martyrs' Shrine

Major Catholic and Anglican pilgrimage site honouring the Uganda Martyrs of 1886

Built 1916 · South America

Las Lajas Sanctuary

Neo-Gothic basilica built inside a canyon over the Guáitara River in southern Colombia

Built 1914 · Asia

Al-Muhdhar Mosque

Iconic mosque in Tarim, Yemen with the tallest mud-brick minaret in the world at 53 meters, a symbol of Hadrami Islamic architecture

Built 1914 · Africa

Cathedral Notre-Dame du Congo

Monumental cathedral in Kinshasa, one of the largest churches in Central Africa

Built 1910 · Oceania

Rabaul

Capital of German New Guinea from 1910, built around Simpson Harbour as a major copra-trade port and the chief commercial hub of the New Guinea Islands.

Serbia / United States · Scientist

Nikola Tesla

He Won the Current War. He Died Broke at 86. The FBI Took His Papers the Same Day.

Genius, rivalry, and vindication — how a penniless Serbian immigrant defeated Edison and powered the modern world.

Spain / France · Artist

Pablo Picasso

The Man Who Broke the Mirror

The life of the artist who shattered five centuries of Western painting and rebuilt it from the fragments — from Málaga to Mougins.

Poland / United States · Philosopher

Abraham Joshua Heschel

The Prophet of Radical Amazement

The Hasidic rabbi’s son from Warsaw who became the conscience of American Judaism and marched arm in arm with Martin Luther King Jr.

France / Lithuania · Philosopher

Emmanuel Levinas

The Philosopher of the Other

The Lithuanian Jewish philosopher who survived five years in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, lost his entire family to the Holocaust, and rebuilt ethics from the ground up — told in his own words.