Declaration by United Nations

Wartime poster for the United Nations, created in 1943 by the U.S. Office of War Information.

The Declaration by United Nations was a World War II document agreed to on January 1, 1942 during the Arcadia Conference by 26 governments: the Allied "Big Four" (the USA, the UK, the USSR, and China), nine American allies in Central America and the Caribbean, the four British Dominions, British India, and eight Allied governments-in-exile, for a total of twenty-six nations.

During December 1941, Roosevelt devised the name "United Nations" for the Allies of World War II, and the Declaration by United Nations, on 1 January 1942, was the basis of the modern UN.^[1] 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 ruling Germany, Italy, and Japan were indistinguishable.^[2] The declaration, furthermore, "upheld the Wilsonian principles of self determination," thus linking U.S. war aims in both world wars.^[3]

By the end of the war, a number of other states had acceded to the declaration, including the Philippines, France, every Latin American state except Argentina,^[4] 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.

Wartime poster for the United Nations, created in 1942 by the U.S. Office of War Information, showing the 26 members of the alliance.

The original signatories were
Big Four	United States • United Kingdom • Soviet Union • China
British Commonwealth	Australia • Canada • India • New Zealand • South Africa
Other powers	Costa Rica • Cuba • Dominican Republic • El Salvador • Guatemala • Haiti • Honduras • Nicaragua • Panama
In exile	Belgium • Czechoslovakia • Greece • Luxembourg • Netherlands • Norway • Poland • Yugoslavia
Later signatories were
1942	Mexico • Philippine Commonwealth • Ethiopia
1943	Iraq • Brazil • Bolivia • Iran • Colombia
1944	Liberia • France
1945	Ecuador • Peru • Chile • Paraguay • Venezuela • Uruguay • Turkey • Egypt • Saudi Arabia • Lebanon • Syria

The parties pledged to uphold the Atlantic Charter, to employ all their resources in the war against the Axis powers, and that none of the signatory nations would seek to negotiate a separate peace with Nazi Germany or Japan in the same manner that the nations of the Triple Entente had agreed not to negotiate a separate peace with any or all of the Central Powers in World War I under the Unity Pact.

See also

• List of World War II conferences
• 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization resulted in the creation of the United Nations Charter

Notes

1. ^ Hoopes, Townsend, and Douglas Brinkley. FDR and the Creation of the U.N. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. ISBN 9780300069303.
2. ^ Bevans, Charles I. Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949. Volume 3. Mulitlateral, 1931-1945. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969, p. 697.
3. ^ Bailey, Thomas A. The Marshall Plan Summer: An Eyewitness Report on Europe and the Russians in 1947. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1977, p. 227.
4. ^ Act of Chapultepec The Oxford Companion to World War II, I. C. B. Dear and M. R. D. Foot (2001)

References

• Declaration by United Nations from ibiblio.