Washington Naval Conference

Last updated
Washington Naval Conference. Date: November 12, 1921 to February 6, 1922 The Conference on Limitation of Armaments, Washington, D.C..jpg
Washington Naval Conference. Date: November 12, 1921 to February 6, 1922

The Washington Naval Conference was a disarmament conference called by the United States and held in Washington, D.C., from November 12, 1921, to February 6, 1922. [1] It was conducted outside the auspices of the League of Nations. It was attended by nine nations (the United States, Japan, China, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal) [2] [3] regarding interests in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. [1] Germany was not invited to the conference, as restrictions on its navy had already been set in the Versailles Treaty. Soviet Russia was also not invited to the conference. It was the first arms control conference in history, and is still studied by political scientists as a model for a successful disarmament movement. [ citation needed ]

Contents

Held at Memorial Continental Hall, in Downtown Washington, [4] it resulted in three major treaties: Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty (more commonly known as the Washington Naval Treaty), the Nine-Power Treaty, 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.

Background

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. [5] Across the world, leaders of the women's suffrage movement formed international organizations such as the International Council of Women and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Historian Martin Pugh 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." [6] 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. [7]

At the end of World War I, 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. To stop a needless, expensive, and possibly dangerous arms race, the major countries signed a series of naval disarmament agreements. [8]

Meeting

The American delegation, led by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, included Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge and Oscar Underwood, [2] [3] 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, 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, Hong Kong, and Dominion 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. [ citation needed ]

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 and Mongolia. Japanese officials also brought other issues to the conference: a strong demand to remain in control of Yap, Siberia, and Tsingtao 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; 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. [4]

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. [9] [10]

Agreements

US President Warren Harding called the Washington Conference a deal that all countries thought best for themselves. [11] To resolve technical disputes about the quality of warships, the conferees adopted a standard based on the tonnage 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. [12] 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.

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 American Association for International Conciliation; the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; the Women's Peace Society; the Women's World Disarmament Committee; the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. [13]

The Washington Conference exactly captured the worldwide popular demand for peace and disarmament. [14] 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. However, even with the restrictions, the agreement solidified Japan's position as a great power and was treated as a colonial power with equal diplomatic interests, a first for a non-Western nation. [15]

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. [16]

Japan agreed to revert Shandong to Chinese control by an agreement concluded on February 4, 1922. Ratifications of the agreement were exchanged in Beijing on June 2, 1922, and it was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on July 7, 1922. [17] [18]

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 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, which had been limited in size (10,000 tons) but not numbers. [19] That oversight was resolved on value of cruisers by the London Naval Treaty 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, relief funds were used to build more warships. "The naval program was wholly mine," President Franklin Roosevelt boasted. [20]

Termination

The pacts and the treaties that resulted from the Washington Naval Treaty remained in effect for fourteen years. Japan ended participation in 1936. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

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 weapons before the invention of firearm. Arms control is typically exercised through the use of diplomacy which seeks to impose such limitations upon consenting participants through international treaties and agreements, although it may also comprise efforts by a nation or group of nations to enforce limitations upon a non-consenting country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disarmament</span> Act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons, usually on a national scale

Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing 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, such as nuclear arms. General and Complete Disarmament was defined by the United Nations General Assembly as the elimination of all WMD, coupled with the “balanced reduction of armed forces and conventional armaments, based on the principle of undiminished security of the parties with a view to promoting or enhancing stability at a lower military level, taking into account the need of all States to protect their security.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Naval Treaty</span> 1922 pact by the Allies of WWI

The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty 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 Conference in Washington, D.C. from November 1921 to February 1922 and signed by the governments of the British Empire, United States, France, Italy, and Japan. It limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited to 10,000 tons displacement each.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Naval Treaty</span> 1930 international arms control treaty

The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States that was signed on 22 April 1930. Seeking to address issues not covered in the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which had created tonnage limits for each nation's surface warships, the new agreement regulated submarine warfare, further controlled cruisers and destroyers, and limited naval shipbuilding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second London Naval Treaty</span> 1936 international arms control 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 25 March 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Japanese Alliance</span> 1902–1922 defence pact

The first Anglo-Japanese Alliance was an alliance between Britain and Japan. It was in operation from 1902 to 1922. The original British goal was to prevent Russia from expanding in Manchuria while also preserving the territorial integrity of China and Korea. For the British, it marked the end of a period of "splendid isolation" while allowing for greater focus on protecting India and competing in the Anglo-German naval arms race. The alliance was part of a larger British strategy to reduce imperial overcommitment and recall the Royal Navy to defend Britain. The Japanese, on the other hand, gained international prestige from the alliance and used it as a foundation for their diplomacy for two decades. In 1905, the treaty was redefined in favor of Japan concerning Korea. It was renewed in 1911 for another ten years and replaced by the Four-Power Treaty in 1922.

Demilitarisation or demilitarization may mean the reduction of state armed forces; it is the opposite of militarisation in many respects. For instance, the demilitarisation of Northern Ireland entailed the reduction of British security and military apparatuses. Demilitarisation in this sense is usually the result of a peace treaty ending a war or a major conflict. The principle is distinguished from demobilisation, which refers to the drastic voluntary reduction in the size of a victorious army.

The unequal treaties were a series of agreements made between Asian countries – most notably Qing China, Tokugawa Japan and Joseon Korea – and Western countries – most notably the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States and Russia – during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were often signed following a military defeat suffered by the former party, or amid military threats made by the latter. Their terms specified obligations to be borne almost exclusively by the former party: provisions included the cession of territory, the payment of reparations, the opening of treaty ports, the relinquishment of the right to control tariffs and imports, and the granting of extraterritoriality to foreign citizens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-German Naval Agreement</span> Inter-war arms limitation agreement between the United Kingdom and Germany

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 Treaties for the Limitation of Naval Armament were numerous accords in the 1920s signed variously by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Italy and France. The treaties were an outgrowth of the Washington Naval Conference, held by the US in 1921–22.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Four-Power Treaty</span> 1921 treaty between the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Japan

The Four-Power Treaty was a treaty signed by the United States, Great Britain, France and Japan at the Washington Naval Conference on 13 December 1921. It was partly a follow-up to the Lansing-Ishii Treaty, signed between the U.S. and Japan. This Treaty related to the Treaty for the Limitation of Naval Armament that attempted to maintain peace in the Pacific. It was signed in Washington, D.C., on 13 December 1921.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fleet Faction</span> Political faction of the Imperial Japanese Navy

The Fleet Faction was an informal political faction within the Imperial Japanese Navy active in the 1920s and 1930s. The kantai-ha sought to drastically increase the size of the Imperial Japanese Navy in order to reach force parity with the fleets of the United States Navy and Royal Navy in the Western Pacific Ocean. The group advocated for the kantai kessen, a doctrine specifying a need for larger warships and larger-caliber guns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty Faction</span> Informal political faction of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 1920s and 1930s era

The Treaty Faction was an unofficial and informal political faction within the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 1920s–1930s of officers supporting the Washington Naval Treaty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geneva Naval Conference</span>

The Geneva Naval Conference was a conference held to discuss naval arms limitation, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1927. The aim of the conference was to extend the existing limits on naval construction which had been agreed in the Washington Naval Treaty. The Washington Treaty had limited the construction of battleships and aircraft carriers, but had not limited the construction of cruisers, destroyers or submarines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments</span> 1932–34 meeting in Switzerland on global disarmament

The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments, generally known as the Geneva Conference or World Disarmament Conference, was an international conference of states held in Geneva, Switzerland, between February 1932 and November 1934 to accomplish disarmament in accordance with the Covenant of the League of Nations. It was attended by 61 states, most of which were members of the League of Nations, but the USSR and the United States also attended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty battleship</span> Ship built under international treaty

A treaty battleship was a battleship built in the 1920s or 1930s under the terms of one of a number of international treaties governing warship construction. Many of these ships played an active role in the Second World War, but few survived long after it.

The Washington Agreement was a peace agreement that led to the modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, signed in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacifism in the United States</span>

Pacifism has manifested in the United States in a variety of forms, and in myriad contexts. In general, it exists in contrast to an acceptance of the necessity of war for national defense.

International relations (1919–1939) covers the main interactions shaping world history in this era, known as the interwar period, with emphasis on diplomacy and economic relations. The coverage here follows the diplomatic history of World War I and precedes the diplomatic history of World War II. The important stages of interwar diplomacy and international relations included resolutions of wartime issues, such as reparations owed by Germany and boundaries; American involvement in European finances and disarmament projects; the expectations and failures of the League of Nations; the relationships of the new countries to the old; the distrustful relations between the Soviet Union and the capitalist world; peace and disarmament efforts; responses to the Great Depression starting in 1929; the collapse of world trade; the collapse of democratic regimes one by one; the growth of economic autarky; Japanese aggressiveness toward China; fascist diplomacy, including the aggressive moves by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany; the Spanish Civil War; the appeasement of Germany's expansionist moves toward the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, and the last, desperate stages of rearmament as another world war increasingly loomed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Council for the Reduction of Armaments</span> American coordinating body formed in 1921

The National Council for the Reduction of Armaments was the headquarters for the civic organizations that marshaled American public opinion to support the naval arms reductions at the Washington Naval Arms Reduction Treaty of 1922.

References

  1. 1 2 Wright, Quincy (1922). "The Washington Conference". American Political Science Review. 16 (2): 285–297. doi:10.2307/1943964. ISSN   0003-0554. JSTOR   1943964. S2CID   147404493.
  2. 1 2 Thorson, Winston B. (1 January 1946). "Pacific Northwest Opinion on the Washington Conference of 1921-1922". The Pacific Northwest Quarterly. 37 (2): 109–127. JSTOR   40486746.
  3. 1 2 "Washington Naval Conference". u-s-history.com. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  4. 1 2 "On the Trail of Military Intelligence History: A Guide to the Washington, DC, Area" (PDF). fas.org. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  5. ↑ Michael J. Turner, Britain and the World in the Twentieth Century (2010) p. 10
  6. ↑ Pugh, Martin (2000). The March of the Women: A Revisionist Analysis of the Campaign for Women's Suffrage, 1866–1914. Oxford University Press. p. 86. ISBN   9780198207757.
  7. ↑ Robert Moats Miller, "The Attitudes of the Major Protestant Churches in America Toward War and Peace, 1919–1929", The Historian 19#1 (1956), pp. 13–38 online.
  8. ↑ Richard W. Fanning, Peace and disarmament: naval rivalry & arms control, 1922–1933 (1995) pp. 1–24
  9. ↑ "Introduction to The Art of Peace: the illustrated biography of Prince Iyesato Tokugawa". TheEmperorAndTheSpy.com. 13 April 2020.
  10. ↑ Katz, Stan S. (2019). The Art of Peace - An illustrated biography on Prince Tokugawa Iesato. Horizon Productions.
  11. ↑ Roger Dingman, Power in the Pacific: the origins of naval arms limitation, 1914–1922 (1976) p. 217
  12. ↑ Germany was still limited to zero by the Versailles Treaty, and Soviet Russia, a pariah nation because of its communism, was not invited.
  13. ↑ Richard Fanning, Peace and Disarmament: Naval Rivalry and Arms Control, 1922–1933 (University Press of Kentucky, 2014) p. 9. online
  14. ↑ Richard Fanning, "Peace groups and the campaign for naval disarmament, 1927–1936." Peace & Change (1990) 15#1 pp 26–45.
  15. ↑ Joshua Schenkein, "Japan, The Great Power: Industrialization Through The Lens Of Zaibatsu.", pp. 1–5.
  16. ↑ League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 25, pp. 202–227.
  17. ↑ League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 10, pp. 310–331.
  18. ↑ "China and Japan – Treaty for the settlement of outstanding questions relative to Shantung, signed at Washington February 4, 1922 [1922] LNTSer 78; 10 LNTS 309". www.worldlii.org. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  19. ↑ George W. Baer, One Hundred Years of Sea Power: The U. S. Navy, 1890–1990 (1994) pp. 108–9.
  20. ↑ Quoted in Harlow A. Hyde, Scraps of paper: the disarmament treaties between the world wars (1988) p. 239
  21. ↑ "Results of the Washington Naval Conference". www.u-s-history.com.

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.