Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known
as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty among the major nations
that had won World War I, which by the terms of the treaty
agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction.
It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference, which was
held in Washington, D.C. from November 1921 to February 1922,
and signed by the governments of the United Kingdom, the United
States, Japan, France, and Italy. It limited the construction of
battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the
signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships,
including cruisers, destroyers and submarines, were not limited
by the treaty but were limited to 10,000 tons displacement.
Subsequent to the treaty were a number of other naval arms
limitation conferences that sought to increase limitations of
warship building. The terms of the Washington treaty were
modified by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the Second
London Naval Treaty of 1936. By the mid-193