Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was an August 14, 1941 manifesto against Nazi Germany calling for free trade and self-determination.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Newfoundland on August 1941 in order to set long-term peace goals. The called for the destruction of Nazi Germany (which had just declared war against the Soviet Union). It called on Japan to withdraw from Indochina. Contrary to myth, there were no secret commitments.
The Soviet Union soon endorsed the Atlantic Charter.
The statements buoyed the free world, holding out hope that an Anglo-American alliance was being formed to defeat Hitler. The alliance was indeed formed four months later, after Pearl Harbor.
Leaders in exile of the Baltic States interpreted the Atlantic Charter as a guaranty of the restoration of their independence after the war. Nationalists in the British colonies in Africa and Asia used the terms of the Atlantic Charter, which promised to restore sovereignty and self-government to those who had been "forcibly deprived of them," to pressure the British government when the war ended.
The vague policies formulated in 1941 evolved into the United Nations in 1945.
Further reading
- Brinkley, Douglas, and David R. Facey-Crowther, eds. The Atlantic Charter (1994), articles by scholars. excerpts and text search
- Dobson, Alan P. "Economic Diplomacy at the Atlantic Conference." Review Of International Studies 1984 10(2): 143-163.
- Wilson, Theodore A. The First Summit: Roosevelt and Churchill at Placentia Bay, 1941 (1991)