The Washington Naval Conference was a diplomatic conference, called by the administration of President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington, D.C. from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922. 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 to the conference. It was the first international conference held in the United States and the first disarmament conference in history, and is studied by political scientists as a model for a successful disarmament movement. (Kaufman, 1990) Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was an American politician and the 29th President of the United States, from 1921 to 1923, when he became the sixth president to die in office. ... Nickname: Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: , Country United States Federal District District of Columbia Government  - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)  - District Council Chairperson: Vincent C. Gray (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2: Jack... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... The League of Nations was an international organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919-1920. ... Geographic East Asia. ... Soviet redirects here. ...

Held at the Memorial Continental Hall (now DAR Constitution Hall) in downtown Washington,^[1] it resulted in three major treaties: Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty and the Nine-Power Treaty and a number of smaller agreements. These treaties preserved peace during the 1920s but are also credited with enabling the rise of the Japanese Empire as a naval power leading up to World War II. DAR Constitution Hall DAR Constitution Hall is a concert hall located in Washington, D.C. It was built in 1929 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, which still owns the theater. ... 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. ... The Washington Naval Treaty limited the naval armaments of its five signatories. ... Signed by the US, France, Great Britain, Japan, Italy, Belgium, China, Netherlands, and Portugal. ... The 1920s is a decade that is sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ... His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Akihito of Japan The Emperor of Japan (天皇, tennō) is Japans titular head of state and the head of the Japanese imperial family. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

For the American delegation, led by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, the primary objective of the conference was to inhibit Japanese naval expansion in the waters of the west Pacific, especially with regard to fortifications on strategically valuable islands. Their secondary objectives were intended to ultimately limit Japanese expansion, but also to alleviate concerns over possible antagonism with the British. They were: first, to eliminate Anglo-American tension by abrogating the Anglo-Japanese alliance; second, to agree upon a favorable naval ratio vis-à-vis Japan; and, third, to have the Japanese officially accept a continuance of the Open Door policy in China. In several countries, Secretary of State is a senior government position. ... Charles Evans Hughes (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was Governor of New York, United States Secretary of State, Associate Justice and Chief Justice of the United States. ... The first Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed in London on January 30, 1902 by Lord Lansdowne (British foreign secretary) and Hayashi Tadasu (Japanese minister in London). ... The Open Door Policy is the maintenance in a certain territory of equal commercial and industrial rights for the nationals of all countries. ...

The British, however, took a more cautious and tempered approach. Indeed, British officials brought certain general desires to the conference—to achieve peace and stability in the western Pacific, avoid a naval 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 western Pacific should look like after an agreement. A dominion, often Dominion, is the territory or the authority of a dominus (a lord or master). ...

Japanese officials were more focused on specifics than the British, and approached the conference with two primary goals: first, to sign a naval treaty with Britain and the United States, and, secondly, 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 that they remain in control of Yap, Siberia, and Tsingtao, as well as more general concerns about the growing presence of American fleets in the Pacific. This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Map of Yap State Map of Yap Islands Yap is an island in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, the westernmost state of the Federated States of Micronesia. ... It has been suggested that Western Siberia be merged into this article or section. ...   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ching-tao), well-known to the West by its Postal map spelling Tsingtao, is a sub-provincial city in eastern Shandong province, Peoples Republic of China. ...

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; U.S. negotiators used this knowledge to push the Japanese to it. This success, one of the first in the U.S. government's budding eavesdropping and cryptology efforts, led eventually to the growth of such agencies.^[2]

References

Bibliography

• Andrew Field. Royal Navy Strategy in the Far East, 1919-1939 (2004)
• Goldman, Emily O. Sunken Treaties: Naval Arms Control between the Wars. Pennsylvania State U. Press, 1994. 352 pp.
• Erik Goldstein. The Washington Conference, 1921-22: Naval Rivalry, East Asian Stability and the Road to Pearl Harbor (1994)
• 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.
• Carolyn J. Kitching; Britain and the Problem of International Disarmament, 1919-1934 Routledge, 1999 online
• Phillips Payson O'Brien; British and American Naval Power: Politics and Policy, 1900-1936 (Praeger Studies in Diplomacy and Strategic Thought) (1998)

See also

• Washington Naval Treaty