In 1944, just three weeks after D-Day, delegates from various countries met in New Hampshire to plan how to prevent World War III. Common motivations for the conference were the effects of the Great Depression and the end of the gold standard. They were hoping to make an international monetary system to take care of the foreign exchange problems of World War II.Forty-three countries met at the conference. Leaders of the Allied countries, specifically the US and Britain, felt that the conference was necessary for overcoming the economic effects of the war.
Conference-planning began two weeks after Pearl Harbor when economist Harry White was told he needed to make a new framework that would prevent the "beggar-thy-neighbor" policies that actually worsened economic problems. After he drafted two new financial systems, the conference took place.
The conference ended up being a great success in establishing a post-war financial system. During the conference, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank were established to improve currency stabilization to facilitate the increase in world trade. The nations who participated in the conference formed an agreement to value various world currencies to that of American currency.https://time.com/5617093/bretton-woods-75/
https://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2019/01/art-320747/
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2014/06/30/what-was-decided-at-the-bretton-woods-summit
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitextlo/info_brettonwoods.html
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/bretton-woods-conference-75th-anniversary
I thought that this was a really interesting post! It seems like Allied leaders were really motivated to avoid the economic disaster of the Great Depression. This reminded me of the Yalta Conference, when the Allied powers agreed to occupy and demilitarize Germany so that it could not become aggressive again. Also, they agreed on an international peace organization called the United Nations to replace the League of Nations. Overall, it seems like the Allied powers really learned from the mistakes that they made after WW1, and they were much more cautious in their policies as WW2 was coming to a close.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.britannica.com/event/Yalta-Conference