public works and, especially, military spending. Spain was a poor rural nation that saw mounting political crises that led in 1936–1939 to the Spanish Civil War. Damage was great. 1939 saw the takeover of the country by Francisco Franco's Nationalist faction. In Benito Mussolini's Italy, the economic controls of his corporate state were tightened. The economy was never prosperous. Canada and the Caribbean In Canada, Between 1929 and 1939, the gross national product dropped 40%, compared to 37% in the U.S. Unemployment reached 28% at the depth of the Depression in 1929 and 1930, while wages bottomed out in 1933. Many businesses closed, as corporate profits of Can$396 million in 1929 turned into losses of $98 million in 1933. Exports shrank by 50% from 1929 to 1933. The worst hit were areas dependent on primary industries such as farming, mining and logging, as prices fell and there were few alternative jobs. Some families saw most or all of their assets disappear and their debts became heavier as prices fell. Local and provincial government set up relief programs but there was no nationwide New Deal-like program. The effects of the Great Depression in Canada were heavily regionalized. The Prairie Provinces's economies, which had experienced strong economic growth during the 1920s, were poor for most of the 1930s. British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec initially experienced sharp economic contractions, which were followed by reasonably strong recoveries, with some sectors of their economies even experiencing strong growth in the latter half of the 1930s. Meanwhile, in the Maritimes the Great Depression had the effect of exacerbating economic conditions that had been poor since the mid-1920s. The Conservative government of Prime Minister R. B. Bennett retaliated against the American high tariff act of 1930. It raised tariffs on U.S. goods and lowered them on British Empire goods. Nevertheless, the Canadian economy suffered. In 1935, Bennett proposed a series of programs that resembled the New Deal; but was defeated in the elections of that year and no such programs were passed. Asia Japan's economy expanded at the rate of 5% of GDP per year after the years of modernization. Manufacturing and mining came to account for more than 30% of GDP, more than twice the value for the agricultural sector. Most industrial growth, however, was geared toward expanding the nation's military power. Beginning in 1937 much of Japan's energy was focused on a large-scale war and