Washington Conference summary

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Washington Conference, officially International Conference on Naval Limitation, Conference held in Washington, D.C. (1921–22), to limit the naval arms race and negotiate Pacific security agreements. Several major and minor treaty agreements were drafted and signed: the Four-Power Pact (signed by Britain, Japan, France, and the U.S.) stipulated mutual consultation regarding any issue in the Pacific and affirmed respect for the Pacific territories of signatory nations. The Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty (which Italy also signed) imposed proportional limits on the number of warships each signatory nation could maintain and mandated some actual disarmament; it lapsed in 1936 when Japan was refused equality with the U.S. and Britain. Another agreement regulated the use of submarines and outlawed poison gas in warfare. A Nine-Power Pact (with the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, and China) affirmed China’s sovereignty.

balance of power Summary

Balance of power, in international relations, the posture and policy of a nation or group of nations protecting itself against another nation or group of nations by matching its power against the power of the other side. States can pursue a policy of balance of power in two ways: by increasing

naval warfare Summary

Naval warfare, the tactics of military operations and armed forces conducted on, under, or over the sea. Being the activities of battle itself, tactics are conceived and executed at the literal and metaphoric centre of war’s violence. Tactical science is an orderly description of these activities,

The Pacific Ocean, with depth contours and submarine features

Pacific Ocean Summary

Pacific Ocean, body of salt water extending from the 60° S parallel in the south to the Arctic in the north and lying between the continents of Asia and Australia on the west and North America and South America on the east. Of the three major oceans, the Pacific is by far the largest, occupying

Washington, D.C. Summary

Washington, D.C., city and capital of the United States of America. It is coextensive with the District of Columbia (the city is often referred to as simply D.C.) and is located on the northern shore of the Potomac River at the river’s navigation head—that is, the transshipment point between