Background
After the end of the First World War, many navies continued and expanded construction programs that had begun during the conflict. The United States' 1916 program called for six Lexington-class battlecruisers and five South Dakota-class battleships; in December 1918, it was proposed by the government of President Woodrow Wilson that ten battleships and six battlecruisers be built in addition to this. 1919–1920 General Board proposals planned for smaller, but still significant, acquisitions beyond the 1916 plan: two battleships and a battlecruiser for the fiscal year 1921 and three battleships, a battlecruiser, four aircraft carriers and thirty destroyers between the fiscal years 1922 and 1924. The United Kingdom was in the final stages of ordering eight capital ships (the G3 battlecruisers, the first's keel laying in 1921, and N3 battleships, to be laid down beginning in 1922). Imperial Japan was, by 1920, attempting to build up to an 8-8 standard with the Nagato, Tosa, Amagi, Kii and Number 13 classes. Two ships from these designs would be laid down per year until 1928.
With the enormous costs associated with such programs, pressure mounted to begin a disarmament conference. On 8 July 1921, the United States' Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes did just that when he invited delegations from the major maritime powers—France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom—to come together in Washington, D.C. to discuss, and hopefully end, the naval arms race. The subsequent Washington Naval Conference resulted in the Washington Naval Treaty. Along with many other provisions, it limited all future battleships to a standard displacement of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) and a maximum gun caliber of 16 inches (406 mm). It also decreed that the five countries could not construct another capital ship for ten years and could not replace any ship that survived the treaty until it was at least twenty years old.
The Second London Naval Treaty, while superseding the 1922 agreement, nonetheless kept many of the same requirements, though it restricted gun size on new warships to 14 inches (356 mm). These treaties heavily influenced the design of the North Carolina class, as can be attested to in the long quest to find a ship that incorporated everything considered to be necessary while remaining under 35,000 long tons.
Read more about this topic: North Carolina Class Battleship
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