The world in
What happened in 1938?
30 events across 8 world regions, each with its sources.
Europe
- Munich Agreement
On 30 September 1938, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy reached an agreement in Munich allowing Germany to annex Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, home to about three million people, mainly ethnic Germans. Because of earlier 1924 alliance and 1925 military agreements between France and Czechoslovakia, it is known in some places as the Munich Betrayal.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- The Holocaust
During World War II, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically perpetrated genocide against the Jewish people, resulting in the murder of approximately two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
In 1936, a civil war broke out in Spain between the Republican government and the right-wing Nationalist forces, lasting until 1939. The Republicans were supported by the Soviet Union, while the Nationalists received aid from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The war was seen as an ideological and class struggle.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Signing of the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR
On December 30, 1922, the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR was signed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, officially establishing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Plenipotentiary delegates from the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, and Byelorussian Soviet republics signed the treaty, along with a declaration serving as its preamble. The treaty legally formalized the political union of the Soviet republics that had existed since 1919, creating a new federal government with centralized functions in Moscow. Legislative power was vested in the Congress of Soviets and the Central Executive Committee, while executive power lay with the Council of People's Commissars.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Mount Olympus (Formation of Its Highest Peak and Geographical Features)
Mount Olympus is located near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea in Greece. Its highest peak, Mytikas, rises to about 2,918 meters and is the highest peak in Greece. The massif consists of 52 peaks.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Establishment of the Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Brâncuși at Târgu Jiu
Constantin Brâncuși created an outdoor sculptural ensemble in Târgu Jiu, Romania, as a tribute to the Romanian heroes of the First World War. The ensemble comprises three sculptures—The Table of Silence, The Gate of the Kiss, and the Endless Column—arranged along a 1.3-km east-west axis. It is considered a masterwork of 20th-century outdoor sculpture and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024.
- Battle of the Ebro
The Battle of the Ebro was the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War. Fought between July and November 1938 along the lower Ebro River, mainly in Catalonia's Terra Alta and eastern Aragon, it inflicted tens of thousands of casualties on the Second Spanish Republic while failing to halt the Nationalist advance. As the Republic's last major offensive, its defeat hastened the end of the war.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- First Vienna Award
On 2 November 1938, the First Vienna Award was made by Germany and Italy at Vienna's Belvedere Palace, forcing Czechoslovakia to cede its southern territories and parts of southern Carpathian Ruthenia to Hungary. It directly resulted from the Munich Agreement's partitioning of Czechoslovakia.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Signing of the Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact
In 1932, Poland and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact in Moscow, aiming to maintain peaceful relations. The pact was unilaterally broken by the Soviet Union on September 17, 1939, with the invasion of Poland.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Inauguration of The Endless Column
On 27 October 1938, the public sculpture The Endless Column, created by Constantin Brâncuși, was inaugurated in Târgu Jiu, Romania. The work is the centrepiece of a memorial ensemble designed by Brâncuși for the town, its upward-extending modular form symbolising infinity and transcendence.
- Completion of the Palace of Nations
The Palace of Nations was completed in 1938 in Geneva, Switzerland, originally as the headquarters of the League of Nations. It later became the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva, even though Switzerland did not join the UN until 2002.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Inauguration of the Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux
The Australian National Memorial in the Somme, France, was inaugurated in the late 1930s to commemorate Australian soldiers who died on the Western Front during World War I. It lists 10,773 names of Australian Imperial Force personnel with no known grave, and its location at Villers-Bretonneux was chosen to honor the Australian role in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Inauguration of the Monument to Jewish Fallen Soldiers
The Monument to Jewish Fallen Soldiers, located at the Douaumont Ossuary site in the Meuse department, France, was inaugurated in 1938. It commemorates Jewish French, Allied, and foreign volunteer soldiers who died for France during the First World War.
- Opening of the Kröller-Müller Museum
In 1938, the Kröller-Müller Museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller, opened in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo, Netherlands. It houses the second-largest collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh, after the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Construction of São Bento Palace
The São Bento Palace began construction in Lisbon as a Benedictine monastery. It later became the seat of the Portuguese parliament.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
East Asia
- Second Sino-Japanese War begins
In 1937, full-scale war broke out between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan, known as the Second Sino-Japanese War. The war was primarily fought in China, also extending into neighboring areas such as northern Burma. It was the largest Asian war in the 20th century and is often regarded as the beginning of World War II in Asia.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Nanjing Massacre
From December 1937 to March 1938, after capturing Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, the Imperial Japanese Army perpetrated mass killings, rape, looting, and arson against civilians, noncombatants, and prisoners of war. The atrocities lasted about six weeks, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and the rape of tens of thousands of women, marking one of the worst war crimes of World War II.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Battle of Lake Khasan
In late July to early August 1938, a brief but intense border clash erupted between Japanese and Soviet forces near Lake Khasan, at the junction of Manchukuo, the Soviet Union, and Korea. Citing disputed boundary markers, Japanese troops occupied the heights; the Soviets counterattacked. After about ten days of fighting, the Japanese withdrew under heavy casualties, and the pre-war status quo was restored diplomatically.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- 1938 Yellow River flood dike breach
On 9 June 1938, Chinese forces breached the Yellow River dikes at Huayuankou, Henan, to flood the advancing Japanese army. The resulting inundation devastated Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu, causing hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. The breach was not sealed until 1947, making it one of the worst man-made disasters of the war.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Battle of Wuhan
From June to October 1938, Chinese forces fought a large-scale defensive battle against the Japanese in the vast areas around Wuhan. Lasting over four months, it was the largest and longest campaign of the early Second Sino-Japanese War. Despite the eventual loss of Wuhan, Chinese resistance persisted, shifting the war into a protracted stalemate.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Battle of Taierzhuang
In March-April 1938, Chinese forces engaged Japanese troops at Taierzhuang, Shandong, achieving the first major Chinese victory of the Second Sino-Japanese War. As part of the Xuzhou Campaign, Japanese divisions attacked Linyi, Tengxian, and Taierzhuang but were repelled. The victory shattered the myth of Japanese invincibility and boosted Chinese morale significantly.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
North America
- Implementation of the New Deal
Between 1933 and 1938, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented a series of economic, social, and political reforms in response to the Great Depression, centered on relief, recovery, and reform. The policies aimed to stabilize the economy through massive government intervention, assist the poorest, and reform financial markets.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Establishment of Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park was established on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, USA, in the 20th century. It is renowned for encompassing three distinct ecosystems—coastline, temperate rainforest, and alpine mountains—making it the only U.S. national park to feature all three.
- Mexican oil expropriation
On March 18, 1938, Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas, invoking Article 27 of the 1917 Constitution, nationalized all petroleum reserves, facilities, and foreign oil companies in Mexico. The state-owned enterprise Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) was subsequently established, affirming national sovereignty over oil resources.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
North Africa
- Completion of the Great Mosque of Asmara
The Great Mosque of Asmara was completed in 1938 in central Asmara, capital of Eritrea. Designed by architect Guido Ferrazza, it was built on the initiative of the Italian colonial authorities to impress the Muslim population, who comprised about half of the local inhabitants. The mosque is considered one of the three prominent religious edifices of the city, alongside the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and Enda Mariam Coptic Cathedral.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
- Completion of Enda Mariam Cathedral
Around the 1930s, Enda Mariam Cathedral was completed in Asmara, later becoming the seat of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
Central Asian steppe
- Soviet–Japanese Border Conflicts Break Out
In 1932, a series of border clashes erupted in Northeast Asia between the Soviet Union, Mongolia, and the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. These undeclared hostilities, ranging from minor skirmishes to major battles, persisted through the 1930s and culminated in the 1939 Battle of Khalkhin Gol, shaping the pre-WWII strategic landscape in the Far East.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
West Asia
- 1936–1939 Arab Revolt in Palestine
From 1936 to 1939, Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine launched a large-scale uprising against British rule and Zionist policies, demanding independence and an end to Jewish immigration and land sales. The revolt erupted during a peak of Jewish immigration, with the Jewish population reaching about 320,000. Though suppressed, it became a key milestone in Palestinian nationalism.
SourcesWikipedia ↗
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Establishment of Garamba National Park
Garamba National Park was established in 1938 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is among Africa's oldest national parks, created to protect critical habitat for species such as the northern white rhinoceros, African elephant, hippopotamus, and giraffe. The park was later designated a World Heritage Site in 1980.
South Asia
- Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve: Ecological Reserve at the Amu Darya in Tajikistan
Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve is situated in southwestern Tajikistan at the confluence of the Vakhsh and Panj Rivers, where they form the Amu Darya. The reserve extends over 40 km from southwest to northeast, covering an area of roughly 460 km². It encompasses diverse ecosystems, including riparian forests and deserts.
Around 1938
These are known only to the century, not to the year. They are listed separately so a rough date is never mistaken for an exact one.
- Establishment of Women's Suffrage Worldwide
- Establishment of Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park
- Construction of Grimeton Longwave Radio Station
- Construction of the Trans-Iranian Railway begins
- Construction of the 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright Begins
- Construction of the Historic Monuments of Dengfeng in 'The Centre of Heaven and Earth'
- Establishment of the Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains
- Designation of the Maotianshan Shales member and type section