The Bretton Woods Agreement established the post-WWII international monetary order, creating the IMF and IBRD and pegging currencies to the US dollar.
Key Facts
- Participating countries
- 44 Allied nations
- Conference dates
- 1–22 July 1944
- Institutions created
- IMF and IBRD (later World Bank Group)
- US gold share at signing
- Two-thirds of world's gold
- System ended
- 15 August 1971 (Nixon ends dollar-gold convertibility)
- Formally dissolved
- Jamaica Accords, 1976
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
World War II had devastated global trade and monetary stability, exposing the failures of competitive currency devaluations and protectionism that had worsened the Great Depression. Allied nations sought to design a new international economic framework before the war ended, aiming to prevent such monetary chaos from recurring and to facilitate post-war reconstruction.
Delegates from 44 Allied countries convened at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, from 1 to 22 July 1944. They negotiated and signed an agreement establishing a system of fixed exchange rates pegged to the US dollar, with the dollar convertible to gold for foreign governments. The accords created the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to oversee and support the new monetary order.
The Bretton Woods system governed international monetary relations for nearly three decades, providing exchange rate stability that supported post-war economic growth. The system collapsed when the United States ended dollar-gold convertibility in August 1971, ushering in an era of floating exchange rates. The IMF and World Bank, however, survived and continued to shape global economic policy, including through lending conditions that critics argue constrained developing economies.
Political Outcome
Establishment of a fixed exchange rate system pegged to the US dollar and gold, creation of the IMF and IBRD, governing international monetary relations from 1945 until the system's effective end in 1971 and formal dissolution via the Jamaica Accords in 1976.
No unified international monetary framework; interwar period marked by competitive devaluations and gold standard instability
US dollar established as the world's primary reserve currency, with the US holding dominant influence over international monetary institutions