Washington

Conference
(1921)
 It was conducted outside the
auspices of the League of
Nations.

 It was attended by nine

nations having interests in the
Pacific Ocean and East Asia.

 Soviet Russia was not invited.

Military conference called by
President Harding
Nov 1921- Feb 1922).
 First international conference held in the US

 First disarmament conference in history.

 It resulted in three major treaties:

• Four Power Treaty
• Five Power Treaty (more commonly known
as the Washington Naval Treaty)
• Nine Power Treaty.
 All parties agreed to:

• Maintain the status quo in the Pacific, by

respecting the Pacific holdings of the other
countries signing the agreement.

• Mutual consultation with each other in the

event of a dispute over territorial
possessions.
 The main result of the Four-Power Treaty
was the termination of the Anglo-Japanese
Alliance of 1902.
 All parties agreed to:

• Build no additional capital ships

(battleships and battle cruisers of more than
10,000 tons) for ten years.

• Destroy many already built or under

construction.
• Limit the total capital ship tonnage of each
of the signatories to the values tabulated in
next slide.

• No single ship could exceed 35,000 tons and

no ship could carry a gun in excess of
16 inches (406 mm).
Country Capital ships Aircraft carriers

525,000 tons 135,000 tons

British Empire
(533,000 tonnes) (137,000 tonnes)

525,000 tons 135,000 tons

United States
(533,000 tonnes) (137,000 tonnes)

315,000 tons 81,000 tons

Japan
(320,000 tonnes) (82,000 tonnes)

175,000 tons 60,000 tons

France
(178,000 tonnes) (61,000 tonnes)

175,000 tons 60,000 tons

Italy
(178,000 tonnes) (61,000 tonnes)
How did the Washington Conference succeed
when so many other attempts had failed?

• First, it would be difficult for any of the five

to cheat. One cannot hide a battleship.
• Second, because ships are roughly equivalent
to each other, it was not necesary to
negotiate equivalencies between different
weapons.
• Third, the agreement represented a joint
effort by the United States and Britain to
force Japan to accept naval inferiority.

 Problem: the treaty only covered capital

(larger than 10,000 t0ns) ships. So a naval
race in smaller craft continued.
 All parties agreed to:
• Respect the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of China as per the Open Door
Policy.
• The Open Door Policy is a concept in foreign
affairs, which usually refers to the policy in
1899 allowing multiple Imperial powers
access to China, with none of them in control
of that country.
 Naval disarmament

 Naval parity with England

 Naval superiority to Japan

 Affirmation of the Open Door

 Withdrawal of Japan from Shantung

 Dissolution of the Anglo-Japanese

Alliance. US Secretary of State
Charles Hughes
 The friendly relations between America
and Japan were marred by the US
Immigration Act of 1924.

 Japan proclaimed the day on which it took

effect a “National Humilliation Day”

 A protesting student committed suicide on

the steps of the US embassy in Tokyo.

 “This law had undone the work of the

Washington Conference and implanted
the seeds of antagonism” (Hughes) US Secretary of State
Charles Hughes
 The USSR was not invited to the talks, despite
her extensive Far Eastern interests. (USSR was,
as yet, not recognized).

 Treaty of Rapallo (April 1922) – Signed, 2

months after the Washington Treaty, by
Germany and Soviet Russia. They said they
would not attack each other and trade links
were opened. Both powers were no longed
isolated.
Geneva and London
Conferences
 Some of the Washington Naval Conference
signatories — primarily Great Britain and Japan —
sought to bolster other parts of their navies in the
mid-1920s by concentrating on the construction of
cruisers, submarines, destroyers and other
smaller vessels.

 Remember: the Five Power Treaty covered only

capital ships, so a naval race in smaller craft
continued.
 By 1926, Britain had 54 cruisers in service,
under construction or funded

 Japan had 25

 The U.S. only 15 such vessels.

 In February 1927, President
Coolidge issued a call to the
Big Five Powers to meet in
Geneva to confront the issue of
naval rivalries.

 Britain and Japan accepted the

invitation, but France and Italy
declined, citing their current
involvement in League of
Nations disarmament efforts.
 Talks dragged on for
nearly six weeks during
which tensions rose among
the former Allies.

 No agreement was
reached.
 Big navy advocates in the U.S. read the failure at
Geneva to mean that further arms limitation could
be accomplished only by resuming the naval
construction race.

 In early 1929, Congress provided funding for 15

new cruisers and an additional aircraft carrier,
which effectively put Britain on notice that the
United States was serious about reestablishing
naval parity.
 The London Naval Treaty (signed on April
22, 1930) regulated submarine warfare and
limited naval shipbuilding.
 Extended the holiday on building capital ships an
additional five years.

 Further destruction of five British ships, three US

ships, and one Japanese ship.

 Placed an upper limit on smaller vessels, but in a

ratio 10-10-7, slightly more favorable to Japan.

 It gave Japan equality in submarines.

 Apart from naval disarmaments, a reduction in
land forces and limits on weapons were also
discussed.

 Sixty-one nations, including USA, USSR and

Germany, came to the conference wanting a
reduction in general arms. Some progress was
made, but when Hitler came into power in 1933
he took Germany out of the Geneva Conference
and the League of Nations.
 Intended to limit the growth in naval
armaments until its expiration in 1942.

 Japan had withdrawn from the conference on

January 15

 Italy declined to sign the treaty.

 The absence of Japan (a very significant naval
power) prevented agreement on a ceiling on
the numbers of warships.

 The treaty did limit the maximum size of

the signatories' ships, and the maximum
caliber of the guns which they could carry.
 First of all, capital ships were restricted to a
35,000 long tons (36,000 t) and 14-inch
(356 mm) guns.
 However, a so-called "escalator clause" was
included at the urging of American
negotiators in case all of the countries that
had signed the Washington Naval Treaty
refused to adhere to this new limit.
 This provision allowed the signatory
countries of the Second London Treaty—
France, the United Kingdom and the United
States—to raise the limit from 14-inch guns
to 16-inch if Japan or Italy still refused to sign
after 1 April 1937.
 Submarines could not be larger than 2,000
tons or have any gun armament of greater
than 5.1-inches.

 Light cruisers were restricted to 8,000 tons

and 6.1-inch (155 mm) or smaller

 Aircraft carriers were restricted to 23,000

tons.
 Article 25 however gave the right to depart
limitations if any other country authorized,
constructed or acquired a capital ship, an
aircraft carrier, or a submarine exceeding
treaty limits, if such a departure would be
necessary for the national security.
 Answer the Geneva and London Conferences exercise.
• Bagby, W. M. (1999). America’s International Relations since World War I. New York: Oxford University Press.