The Accidental Superpower

The Bretton Woods Era

On July 1, 1944, hundreds of delegates from US-allied nations during World War II convened at a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. They engaged in multilateral negotiations that led to the creation of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. These institutions helped Europe recover from the war and developed the basis for the trade-driven world economy that continues today. Americans controlled the outcome of the Bretton Woods conference as they had controlled the WWII Allied campaign against Germany and Japan.

At that time, the US had the most powerful navy in the world. Many of the Bretton Woods delegates expected it to behave as a victorious imperial power and to make Europe part of its territory. Instead, the American delegates said they wanted to make their markets accessible to anyone who wished to export to the United States. They proposed using the US Navy to protect global maritime trade, essentially promising an indirect subsidy to each country at the conference. Delegates ratified the Bretton Woods agreements with little hesitation on July 22, 1944. World War ...