Bretton Woods Conference

The July 1944 United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference brought delegates from 44 Allied nations to Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to design postwar monetary and financial institutions.

Gold standard: A monetary system in which a currency’s value is defined by a fixed quantity of gold. Its collapse between the world wars shaped delegates’ search for a more stable international system.
Bretton Woods system: The postwar monetary order of fixed but adjustable exchange rates centered on the U.S. dollar and gold. It was the exchange-rate framework negotiated alongside the conference’s new institutions.
Atlantic Charter: A 1941 statement by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill outlining shared goals for the postwar world. Its call for economic collaboration helped frame Allied planning for postwar institutions.
Bretton Woods system collapse: The early-1970s breakdown of the postwar system of fixed exchange rates and dollar convertibility into gold. The system created alongside the institutions ended when the United States suspended dollar-gold convertibility.
Great Depression: A severe global economic downturn that began in 1929 and lasted through much of the 1930s. The Depression exposed how currency instability and economic nationalism could deepen a worldwide crisis.
International Monetary Fund: An international organization that promotes monetary cooperation and lends to countries facing balance-of-payments problems. The conference created it to oversee exchange-rate arrangements and provide temporary financial assistance.
United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference: The official name of the 1944 meeting held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. This formal name identifies the conference in its founding documents and diplomatic record.
Smithsonian Agreement: A 1971 agreement among major economies that attempted to preserve fixed exchange rates after the dollar-gold link ended. It was a short-lived effort to repair the monetary order built from Bretton Woods.
Competitive devaluation: A policy of lowering a currency’s value to gain trade advantages over other countries. Delegates sought rules that would discourage the currency depreciations of the interwar years.
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development: The World Bank institution established to finance reconstruction and development projects. The conference’s second major institutional plan became this bank, initially focused on postwar reconstruction.

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