By 1930, the economic crisis had thoroughly spread across most of the world. The former three industrial giants—the United States and Germany—had seen their economies collapse completely, while the East African market also faced the severe impact of the external economic situation.
As global agricultural and industrial product prices plunged, overseas orders fell sharply at the end of 1929, and foreign trade enterprises struggled to stay afloat. However, this was not a major problem for East Africa. Since the 1920s, East Africa had continually adjusted its domestic economic policies. In other words, it had been preparing for this economic crisis for a full decade.
This had been a social and economic reform lasting ten years. Because there had been ample time to prepare, East Africa had no need to adopt radical policies like the later Roosevelt government.
Of course, this also meant that during the 1920s, East African economic growth had lagged behind that of the United States and even Western Europe. Yet in the long run, such steady social reforms were clearly highly beneficial to East Africa.
However, East Africa had not emerged unscathed from the Great Economic Crisis of 1929. Setbacks in foreign trade had also hampered the development of mainland East African enterprises, pushing up unemployment. Though it was nowhere near as exaggerated as in Europe and America, it still produced certain negative effects.
And 1930 was a crucial year for East Africa. The drafting of the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" officially began, determining the direction of East African economic policy for the coming period.
East African National Assembly.
Roer, a member of the East African Labor Party, was delivering a speech. "At the end of 1929, most countries around the world were wailing in misery. Stock markets collapsed; banks and businesses went bankrupt. Especially in the United