In the Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, the nations that won World War I agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference, which was held in Washington, D.C. from November 1921 to February 1922, and signed by Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. It limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers and submarines, were not limited by the treaty but were limited to 10,000 tons displacement.
The treaty was followed by a number of other naval arms limitation conferences that sought to extend or tighten limitations on warship building. The terms of the treaty were modified by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936. By the mid-1930s, Japan and Italy withdrew from the treaties, making naval arms limitation an increasingly untenable position for the other signatories.
Read more about Washington Naval Treaty: Background, Negotiations, Terms, Effects, Japanese Denunciation, Cryptanalytic Influences On The Treaty
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