Washington Naval Treaty

The Washington Naval Treaty, also called the Five-Power Treaty, was an arms limitation agreement signed in 1922 among the major Allied powers of the First World War: the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India), the United States, France, Italy and Japan. It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference in Washington, D.C., from November 1921 to February 1922, and its text was finalized on 6 February 1922. The signatories agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. The treaty limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers, while other warship categories such as cruisers, destroyers and submarines were not limited in number, although each of those ships was held to 10,000 tons displacement. Ratifications were exchanged in Washington on 17 August 1923, and the treaty was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 16 April 1924. Later naval conferences sought further limits: the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936 modified its terms, and by the mid-1930s Japan and Italy had renounced the treaties.