In 1927 the major powers met at the Geneva Conference on Naval Disarmament to negotiate for more extensive reductions in naval armaments than they had agreed to at the Washington Conference on Naval Disarmament of 1921-22. Competing national interests frustrated their efforts. Failing to reach an agreement at the Geneva Conference had important consequences for the future of peace and stability around the world. Although at first the United States stayed out of an arms race for budgetary reasons, Japan and Great Britain competed in a naval buildup that eventually helped to bring about World War II.
The limitation of naval armaments seemed like a realistic possibility in the 1920s. The major powers first successfully concluded a round of agreements at the Washington Conference on Naval Disarmament in 1922. At the same time, the League of Nations had been working, without the participation of the United States, for limitations of both land and sea armaments. Although the Treaty of Versailles had limited only German armaments, it reiterated the need for general limitations among the major powers.
Under the administration of President Calvin Coolidge, the United States hoped to reach agreements that would lead to broad-based naval disarmament. Although the Washington Conference had set limits on the size of warships and aircraft carriers of the major powers, it left a loophole for smaller ships. The naval powers used the loophole to strengthen their military on the seas. In 1927 the Coolidge administration called for another conference, hoping to reach an expanded naval agreement. Meetings between the United States, Britain, and Japan took place in Geneva, but the French and Italians refused to participate in the conference. The French were disgruntled at being placed in the same class of military power as Italy at the 1921-22 conference. The Italians would not attend if the French did not show up. Meanwhile, Britain and Japan refused to stop their naval arms race in cruisers. After meeting for several months, the conference ended without an agreement. After the failure of the Geneva Conference, the U. S. Congress passed legislation that, in effect, placed the United States in the arms race. A few weeks before Coolidge left office in 1929, Congress passed a bill that provided for the construction of 15 heavy cruisers and an aircraft carrier.
Representatives of the major powers met once again for a naval disarmament conference in 1930 as they faced a world economic crisis. Facing an international economic depression, governments recognized that a reasonable place to cut costs significantly was in spending on their navies. The conference agreed to extend the limits of the 1922 Washington agreement to lighter ships. In addition, America, Britain, and Japan agreed to limit their navies at a 5:5:3 ratio. Italy and France signed the agreement as well. Although the two countries could not agree on a ratio between them, they agreed to resolve the dispute within two years. As international tensions heightened in the 1930s, due to Japan’s expansion in Asia and the continued British presence, no agreement could be reached.
Further reading: Richard W. Fanning, Peace and Disarmament: Naval Rivalry and Arms Control, 1922-1933 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995).
—Glen Bessemer
World History
