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The Washington Naval Conference (or the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armament) was a
disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing Weapon, weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, ...
conference called by the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and held in
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, from November 12, 1921, to February 6, 1922. It was conducted outside the auspices of the
League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
. It was attended by nine nations (the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
,
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, the
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,
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,
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, the
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, and
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
) regarding interests in the Pacific Ocean and
East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
.
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
was not invited to the conference, as restrictions on its navy had already been set in the
Versailles Treaty The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace of Versailles, exactl ...
.
Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
was also not invited to the conference. It was the first
arms control Arms control is a term for international restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation and usage of small arms, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction. Historically, arms control may apply to melee wea ...
conference in history, and is still studied by political scientists as a model for a successful disarmament movement. Held at
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, in Downtown Washington, it resulted in three major treaties:
Four-Power Treaty The Four-Power Treaty (四カ国条約, ''Shi-ka-koku Jōyaku'') was a treaty signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast ...
,
Five-Power Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Confer ...
(more commonly known as the Washington Naval Treaty), the
Nine-Power Treaty The Nine-Power Treaty () or Nine-Power Agreement () was a 1922 treaty affirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of China as per the Open Door Policy. The Nine-Power Treaty was signed on 6 February 1922 by all of the att ...
, and a number of smaller agreements. These treaties preserved the peace during the 1920s but were not renewed in the increasingly hostile world of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
.


Background

At the end of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the British still had the largest navy afloat, but its big ships were becoming obsolete, and the Americans and the Japanese were rapidly building expensive new warships. Britain and Japan were allies in a treaty that was due to expire in 1922. Although there were no immediate dangers, observers increasingly pointed to the American-Japanese rivalry for control of the Pacific Ocean as a long-term threat to world peace. By then, considering their colonial interests in Asia, the British decided that it was better for them to cast their lot with Washington than
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
. To stop a needless, expensive, and possibly dangerous arms race, the major countries signed a series of naval disarmament agreements. The global appetite for peace and disarmament was aplenty throughout the 1920s. Women had just won the right to vote in many countries, and they helped convince politicians that money could be saved, votes won, and future wars avoided by stopping the arms race. Across the world, leaders of the women's suffrage movement formed international organizations such as the
International Council of Women The International Council of Women (ICW) is a women's organization working across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating women's rights, human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington D.C ...
and the
International Woman Suffrage Alliance The International Alliance of Women (IAW; , AIF) is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international organization that campaigned for women's suff ...
. Historian
Martin Pugh Martin John Pugh is a British guitarist who came to prominence after joining blues-rock band Steamhammer in 1968, staying with that band through 5 years and 4 albums. The debut Steamhammer album, also known as '' Steamhammer'', was released i ...
writes that they achieved the greatest influence in the 1920s, "when they helped to promote women's contribution to the anti-war movement throughout the Western world." In the United States, practically all the major Protestant denominations and highly-visible Protestant spokesmen were strong supporters of international peace efforts. They collaborated to work to educate their local congregations on the need for peace and disarmament.


Meeting

The American delegation, led by Secretary of State
Charles Evans Hughes Charles Evans Hughes (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was an American politician, academic, and jurist who served as the 11th chief justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
, included
Elihu Root Elihu Root (; February 15, 1845February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, Republican Party (United States), Republican politician, and statesman who served as the 41st United States Secretary of War under presidents William McKinley and Theodor ...
,
Henry Cabot Lodge Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850November 9, 1924) was an American politician, historian, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. A member of the History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served in the United States ...
and
Oscar Underwood Oscar Wilder Underwood (May 6, 1862 – January 25, 1929) was an United States of America, American lawyer and politician from Alabama, and also a candidate for President of the United States in 1912 and 1924. He was the first formally designa ...
, the last being the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. The conference's primary objective was to restrain Japanese naval expansion in the waters of the
West Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
, especially with regard to fortifications on strategically-valuable islands. Its secondary objectives were intended to obtain an ultimate limit to Japanese expansion and also an alleviation of concerns over possible antagonism with the British. They were to eliminate Anglo-American tension by abrogating the Anglo-Japanese alliance, to agree upon a favorable naval ratio vis-à-vis Japan, and to have the Japanese officially accept a continuation of the Open Door Policy in China. The British, however, took a more cautious and tempered approach. Indeed, the British officials brought certain general desires to the conference: to achieve peace and stability in the West Pacific; avoid a naval arms race with the United States; thwart Japanese encroachment into areas under their influence; and preserve the security of
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
,
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
, and
Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...
countries, but they did not enter the conference with a specific laundry list of demands. Rather, they brought with them a vague vision of what the West Pacific should look like after an agreement. Japanese officials were more focused on specifics than the British, and they approached the conference with two primary goals: to sign a naval treaty with Britain and the United States and to obtain official recognition of Japan's special interests in
Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
and
Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
. Japanese officials also brought other issues to the conference: a strong demand to remain in control of
Yap Yap (, sometimes written as , or ) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federate ...
,
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
, and
Tsingtao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to Ger ...
as well as more general concerns about the growing presence of American fleets in the Pacific. The American hand was strengthened by the interception and decryption of secret instructions from the Japanese government to its delegation. The message revealed the lowest naval ratio that would be acceptable to
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
; US negotiators used that knowledge to push the Japanese. This success, one of the first in the US government's budding eavesdropping and cryptology efforts, led eventually to the growth of such agencies. The head of the Japanese delegation to the Washington Naval Conference was Prince Iyesato Tokugawa, who during the first four decades of the twentieth century led a political movement in Japan that promoted democracy and international goodwill with the U.S., Europe and Asia. His influence was significant in the negotiations and ratification of the Washington Naval Treaty.


Agreements

US President
Warren Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents w ...
called the Washington Conference a deal that all countries thought best for themselves. To resolve technical disputes about the quality of warships, the conferees adopted a standard based on the
tonnage Tonnage is a measure of the capacity of a ship, and is commonly used to assess fees on commercial shipping. The term derives from the taxation paid on '' tuns'' or casks of wine. In modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a cal ...
displacement, a simple measure of the size of a ship. A ten-year agreement fixed the ratio of battleships at 5:5:3: 525,000 tons for the US, 525,000 tons for Britain, and 315,000 tons for Japan. Smaller limits with a ratio of 1.67 applied to France and Italy. Battleships, the dominant weapons systems of the era, could be no larger than 35,000 tons. The major powers allowed themselves 135,000:135,000:81,000 tons for the newly-developed
aircraft carriers An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the capital ship of a fl ...
. While the admirals were unhappy, peace activists strongly supported the results and successfully worked for ratification. In the United States they included the
World Peace Foundation The World Peace Foundation or WPF, created in 1910, is a philanthropic foundation for research into peace processes affiliated with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Alex de Waal is the director , having become directo ...
; the
American Association for International Conciliation American Association for International Conciliation (AAIC) was an American publisher and organization focused on international peace. It was the U.S. branch of the Association for International Conciliation. History The AAIC was organized in 1907 a ...
; the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...
; the Women's Peace Society; the Women's World Disarmament Committee; the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...
, and the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. The Washington Conference exactly captured the worldwide popular demand for peace and disarmament. Without an agreement, the US, Britain and Japan likely would have engaged in a naval arms race much like that experienced between Britain and Germany before the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. However, even with the restrictions, the agreement solidified Japan's position as a
great power A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power ...
and was treated as a colonial power with equal diplomatic interests, a first for a non-Western nation. The naval treaty was concluded on February 6, 1922. Ratifications of the treaty were exchanged in Washington on August 17, 1923, and it was registered in ''League of Nations Treaty Series'' on April 16, 1924. Japan agreed to revert
Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...
to Chinese control by an agreement concluded on February 4, 1922. Ratifications of the agreement were exchanged in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
on June 2, 1922, and it was registered in ''League of Nations Treaty Series'' on July 7, 1922.


Results

The Washington Naval Treaty led to an effective end to building new battleship fleets, and the few ships that were built were limited in size and armament. Many existing capital ships were scrapped or sunk. Some ships under construction were turned into
aircraft carriers An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the capital ship of a fl ...
instead. Even with the treaty, the major navies remained suspicious of one another and briefly (1927–1930) engaged in a race to build
heavy cruisers A heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in calibre, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Treat ...
, which had been limited in size (10,000 tons) but not numbers. That oversight was resolved on value of cruisers by the
London Naval Treaty The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Empire of Japan, Japan, French Third Republic, France, Kingdom of Italy, Italy, and the United Stat ...
of 1930, which specified a 10:10:7 ratio for cruisers and destroyers. For the first time, submarines were also limited, with Japan given parity with the US and Britain, at 53,000 tons each. (Submarines typically displaced 1,000–2,000 tons each.) The US Navy maintained an active building program that replaced obsolescent warships with technically more sophisticated new models in part because its construction yards were important sources of political patronage and so were well protected by Congress. During the
New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
, relief funds were used to build more warships. "The naval program was wholly mine," President
Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
boasted.


Termination

The pacts and the treaties that resulted from the Washington Naval Treaty remained in effect for fourteen years. Japan ended participation in 1936.


See also

*
London Naval Treaty The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Empire of Japan, Japan, French Third Republic, France, Kingdom of Italy, Italy, and the United Stat ...
(1930) * National Council for the Reduction of Armaments *
Second London Naval Treaty The Second London Naval Treaty was an international treaty signed as a result of the Second London Naval Disarmament Conference held in London. The conference started on 9 December 1935 and the treaty was signed by the participating nations on ...
*
Anglo-German Naval Agreement The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA) of 18 June 1935 was a naval agreement between the United Kingdom and Germany regulating the size of the ''Kriegsmarine'' in relation to the Royal Navy. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement fixed a ratio where ...


References


Sources and further reading

* Buell, Raymond Leslie. ''The Washington Conference'' (D. Appleton, 1922
online
* Dingman, Roger. ''Power in the Pacific: the origins of naval arms limitation, 1914–1922'' (1976) * Dukes, Paul. ''The USA in the Making of the USSR: The Washington Conference 1921–22 and 'Uninvited Russia'.'' (Routledge, 2004). * Earle, Neil. "Public Opinion for Peace: Tactics of Peace Activists at the Washington Conference on Naval Armament (1921–1922)." ''Journal of Church and State'' 40#1 (1998), pp. 149–69
online
* Elleman, Bruce A. "The Washington Conference, 1921–1922." in ''International Competition in China, 1899–1991.'' (Routledge, 2015). 89–102. * Fanning, Richard W. ''Peace and disarmament: Naval rivalry & arms control, 1922–1933'' (1995
online
* Ferris, John. ''Armaments and allies: The Anglo-Japanese strategic relationship, 1911–1921'' (Routledge, 2003). * Field, Andrew. ''Royal Navy Strategy in the Far East, 1919–1939'' (2004) * Gibbs, Norman. "The Naval Conferences of the Interwar Years: A study in Anglo-American Relations" ''Naval War College Review'' 30#1 (Special issue Summer 1977), pp. 50–6
Online
* Goldman, Emily O. ''Sunken Treaties: Naval Arms Control between the Wars.'' (Pennsylvania State U. Press, 1994). 352 pp. * Goldstein, Erik, and John H. Maurer, eds. ''The Washington Conference, 1921–22: Naval Rivalry, East Asian Stability and the Road to Pearl Harbor'' (Psychology Press, 1994) topical essays by experts. * Hayashi, Mika. "Disarmament Debates around the 1899 Hague Peace Conference and the 1921–1922 Washington Conference: Community-Oriented Aspirations and Individual Security Concerns." ''Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international'' 1.aop (2021): 1–28. * * Kaufman, Robert Gordon. ''Arms Control during the Prenuclear Era: The United States and Naval Limitation between the Two World Wars.'' Columbia U. Press, 1990. 289 pp. * Kitching; Carolyn J. ''Britain and the Problem of International Disarmament, 1919–1934'
Rutledge, 1999 online
* Louria, Margot. ''Triumph and Downfall: America's Pursuit of Peace and Prosperity, 1921–1933'' (Cambridge University Press, 2001). * McKercher, B. J. C. "'A Certain Irritation': The White House, the State Department, and the Desire for a Naval Settlement with Great Britain, 1927–1930." ''Diplomatic History'' 31.5 (2007): 829–863. * O'Brien; Phillips Payson. ''British and American Naval Power: Politics and Policy, 1900–1936'' (Praeger Studies in Diplomacy and Strategic Thought) (1998) * Schenkein, Joshua. "Japan, The Great Power: Industrialization Through The Lens Of Zaibatsu." 2014 ASIN: B00NRHRMW2 * * Willoughby, Westel Woodbury. ''China at the Conference: A Report.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1922.


Primary sources

*


External links

* {{Authority control Naval history Naval conferences Foreign relations of the Empire of Japan Foreign relations of the Republic of China (1912–1949) 1921 in Japan 1922 in Japan Diplomatic conferences in the United States Japan–United States relations 20th-century diplomatic conferences 1922 in international relations 1922 in the United States 1921 in international relations 1921 in the United States 1921 in Washington, D.C. 1922 in Washington, D.C. 1921 conferences 1922 conferences de:Flottenkonferenzen#Die Washingtoner Flottenkonferenz von 1922