The 1920s: National Priorities and Foreign Policy

The 1920s were a decade of cautious nation-building: managing the return of soldiers, balancing city against country, and slowly redefining Australia's place between the British Empire and the wider world.

National priorities at home

Government grappled with the tension between urbanisation and industrialisation on one hand and rural development on the other. The challenge of reintegrating returned soldiers produced the Soldier Settlement Schemes (placing veterans on the land — often marginal land that set many up to fail) and a powerful veterans' lobby in the RSL. The era's economic strategy was captured in the slogan "Men, money, markets" — attract British migrants and capital, and secure markets for primary produce, reinforced by the Empire Settlement Act of 1922.

The rise of the Country Party

Rural interests organised politically: the Country Party emerged and entered a lasting coalition with the Nationalists under the Bruce–Page government, embedding the city–country divide in the party system.

Foreign policy: a slow step toward independence

• Paris Peace Conference (1919) — Hughes argued fiercely for Australian interests (reparations, control of New Guinea) and against a racial-equality clause, asserting a distinct Australian voice.
• League of Nations — Australia joined as a member, a small move onto the world stage.
• 1926 Imperial Conference & the Statute of Westminster — formally recognised the Dominions as autonomous and equal to Britain. Australia, cautious about cutting ties, would not fully adopt the Statute until 1942.

Let's sort the decade's developments into "home" and "abroad," and track the independence trajectory.

Discuss: was Australia in the 1920s becoming more independent of Britain, or simply renegotiating the terms of dependence? Build a class position.