TheDeclaration by United Nations was the maintreaty that formalized theAllies of World War II and was signed by 47 national governments between 1942 and 1945. On 1 January 1942, during theArcadia Conference in Washington D.C., the Allied "Big Four"—theUnited States, theUnited Kingdom, theSoviet Union, andChina—signed a short document which later came to be known as the United Nations Declaration, and the next day the representatives of 22 other nations added their signatures.
The other original signatories on the next day (2 January 1942) were the fourdominions of theBritish Commonwealth (Australia,Canada,New Zealand, andSouth Africa); eight European governments-in-exile (Belgium,Czechoslovakia,Greece,Luxembourg,Netherlands,Norway,Poland, andYugoslavia); nine countries in theAmericas (Costa Rica,Cuba,Dominican Republic,El Salvador,Guatemala,Haiti,Honduras,Nicaragua, andPanama); and onenon-independent government, the British-appointedGovernment of India.
The Declaration by United Nations became the basis of theUnited Nations (UN), which was formalized in theUN Charter, signed by 50 countries on 26 June 1945.
TheAllies of World War II first expressed their principles and vision for the post-World War II world in theDeclaration of St. James's Palace agreed at the First Inter-Allied Conference in June 1941.[1][2] TheAnglo-Soviet Agreement was signed in July 1941 forming a military alliance between theUnited Kingdom and theSoviet Union.[3][4] The two main principles of these agreements, a commitment to the war and renunciation of a separate peace, formed the basis for the later Declaration by United Nations.[5]
TheAtlantic Charter was agreed a month later between Britain and the United States, to which the other Allies, now including the Soviet Union, agreed to adhere at theSecond Inter-Allied Conference in September.[6][7]
The Declaration by United Nations was drafted during theArcadia Conference at theWhite House on December 29, 1941, by US PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill, and Roosevelt's aideHarry Hopkins. It incorporated Soviet suggestions but left no role for France, which wasunder German occupation at the time.
Roosevelt coined the term "United Nations" to describe theAllied countries and suggested it as an alternative to the name "Associated Powers" (the U.S. was never formally a member of theAllies of World War I but entered the war in 1917 as a self-styled "Associated Power"). Churchill accepted it and noted that the phrase was used byLord Byron in the poemChilde Harold's Pilgrimage (Stanza 35).[8][9][10]
The parties pledged to uphold theAtlantic Charter, to employ all their resources in the war against theAxis powers, and not to seek to negotiate aseparate peace with any of them; similarly, theAllied nations had agreed not to negotiate a separate peace with theCentral Powers inWorld War I.
One major change from theAtlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, which Stalin approved after Roosevelt insisted.[11][12]
The text of the declaration affirmed the signatories' perspective "that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world". The principle of "complete victory" established an early precedent for the Allied policy of obtaining the Axis' powers' "unconditional surrender". The defeat of "Hitlerism" constituted the overarching objective, and represented a common Allied perspective that the totalitarian militarist regimes rulingGermany,Italy, andJapan were indistinguishable.[13]
The declaration, furthermore, was consistent with theWilsonian principles of self determination, thus linking U.S. war aims in both world wars.[14]
The Declaration was officially signed on 1 January 1942 by the Big Four —theUnited States, theUnited Kingdom, theSoviet Union, andChina—followed the next day by representatives of 22 other governments. The term "United Nations" became synonymous during the war with the Allies and was considered to be the formal name that they were fighting under.[15][16][17]
The Declaration by United Nations became the basis of the modernUnited Nations.[18] By the end of the war, 21 other states had acceded to the declaration, including the Philippines (a non-independent, UScommonwealth at the time), France, every Latin American state exceptArgentina,[19] and the various independent states of the Middle East and Africa. Although most of the minor Axis powers had switched sides and joined the United Nations as co-belligerents against Germany by the end of the war, they were not allowed to accede to the declaration. OccupiedDenmark did not sign the declaration, but because of the vigorous resistance after 1943, and because the Danish ambassadorHenrik Kauffmann had expressed the adherence to the declaration of all free Danes, Denmark was nonetheless invited among the allies in theSan Francisco Conference in March 1945.[5][20]
A JOINT DECLARATION BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, CHINA, AUSTRALIA, BELGIUM, CANADA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, GREECE, GUATEMALA, HAITI, HONDURAS, INDIA, LUXEMBOURG, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NICARAGUA, NORWAY, PANAMA, POLAND, SOUTH AFRICA, YUGOSLAVIA
The Governments signatory hereto,
Having subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the Joint Declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Great Britain dated August 14, 1941, known as the Atlantic Charter,
Being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world,
Declare:
(1) Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of theTripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.
(2) Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto and not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies.
The foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory overHitlerism.[21]
| Original signatories[22] | |
|---|---|
| Big Four[17][23] | |
| Dominions of the British Commonwealth | |
| Independent countries in the Americas | |
| European governments-in-exile | |
| Non-independent subjects of the British Empire |  India |
| Later signatories[22] | |
| 1942 |
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| 1943 | |
| 1944 | |
| 1945 | |
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