Washington Disarmament Conference of 1921

The Washington Naval Conference, also called the Washington Arms Conference or the Washington Disarmament Conference, was a military conference called by U.S. President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington, D.C., from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922. Conducted outside the auspice of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nations—the United States, Japan, China, France, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal—regarding 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 arms control conference in history, and as Kaufman, 1990 shows, it is studied by political scientists as a model for a successful disarmament movement.

Held at Memorial Continental Hall in downtown Washington DC, it resulted in three major treaties: Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty (more commonly known as the Washington Naval Treaty), the Nine-Power Treaty, and a number of smaller agreements. These treaties preserved peace during the 1920s but were not renewed in the increasingly hostile world of the Great Depression.

The world's popular mood was peace and disarmament throughout the 1920s. Women had just won the right to vote in many countries, and they helped convince politicians that money could be saved, votes won, and future wars avoided by stopping the arms race. Across the world, leaders of the women's suffrage movement formed international organizations such as the International Council of Women, and the Women's Suffrage Alliance. Historian Martin Pugh says they achieved the greatest influence in the 1920s "when they helped to promote women's contribution to the anti-war movement throughout the Western world." In the United States, practically all the major Protestant denominations and highly visible Protestant spokesman were strong supporters of international peace efforts. They collaborated with each other, and worked to educate their local congregations on the need for peace and disarmament.

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