An outline, era by era

United Nations founded (1945)

20th Century · 1914 – 2000

The United Nations is an international organization of states, created in 1945 at the end of World War II. Its charter was drawn up at a conference in San Francisco from April to June 1945, signed on 26 June, and came into force on 24 October 1945, now celebrated as United Nations Day. The first General Assembly met in London in January 1946, and the organization later settled in New York.

Its main purposes, set out in the Charter, are to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, and to promote cooperation on economic, social and humanitarian problems and human rights. It began with 51 member states and now includes almost every country. The founders hoped to succeed where the League of Nations had failed, and the United Nations has shaped diplomacy, peacekeeping, development and international law ever since.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. The League of Nations and its failures

    Event

    What happened

    The League of Nations is founded in 1920 after World War I, under the Covenant agreed at the Paris Peace Conference. The United States, whose president Woodrow Wilson championed it, never joins, because the Senate refuses to ratify the Versailles treaty. In the 1930s the League fails to stop Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 or Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.

    The rest is history

    By 1939 the League could not prevent a new world war, and it did little during it. Planners in the Allied countries took its weaknesses as lessons: they wanted a body with real enforcement powers and the backing of the great powers, including the United States. The League formally dissolved in April 1946 and passed its assets and some functions to the United Nations.

    Sources

    1. BookMazower, Mark. No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
    2. BookPedersen, Susan. The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

  2. The Atlantic Charter

    Event

    What happened

    In August 1941, off Newfoundland, US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet and issue a joint statement of principles. It rejects territorial gains by force, supports self-determination and calls for a peace in which all nations can live safely and cooperate economically. It also speaks of a wider system of general security.

    The rest is history

    The Atlantic Charter became a statement of Allied war aims. In January 1942, twenty-six Allied governments signed the Declaration by United Nations in Washington, endorsing its principles and pledging not to make a separate peace. This was the first official use of the name United Nations, which Roosevelt had proposed. Leaders differed over how the principles applied to colonial empires, a dispute that continued after the war.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryAtlantic Charter. Joint declaration by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston S. Churchill, 14 August 1941.
    2. PrimaryDeclaration by United Nations. Signed at Washington by twenty-six Allied governments, 1 January 1942.
    3. BookBorgwardt, Elizabeth. A New Deal for the World: America's Vision for Human Rights. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.

  3. The Moscow Declaration of 1943

    Event

    What happened

    In October 1943 the foreign ministers of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union meet in Moscow, joined by China's ambassador for one declaration. They state that a general international organization, based on the sovereign equality of all peace-loving states, must be set up as soon as practicable.

    The rest is history

    This was the first formal Allied commitment to found a new world body. It committed the great powers to the project before the war ended. At the Tehran conference in November 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin talked further about postwar security. Detailed planning then moved to the next stage at Dumbarton Oaks.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDeclaration of Four Nations on General Security (Moscow Declaration), 30 October 1943.
    2. BookSchlesinger, Stephen C. Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations. Boulder: Westview Press, 2003.

  4. Dumbarton Oaks conversations

    Event

    What happened

    From August to October 1944, delegations of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China meet at Dumbarton Oaks, an estate in Washington. They draft proposals for a General Assembly of all members, a smaller Security Council with permanent great-power seats, a Secretariat and an international court. Disputes remain over membership and over how voting in the Security Council should work.

    The rest is history

    The proposals became the base text for the Charter. The question of the veto was settled at the Yalta conference in February 1945, where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that permanent members could block substantive Security Council decisions. Yalta also settled that the founding conference would open in San Francisco on 25 April 1945. Many smaller states later objected to the veto, but accepted it as the price of great-power participation.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryProposals for the Establishment of a General International Organization. Dumbarton Oaks, 7 October 1944.
    2. BookHilderbrand, Robert C. Dumbarton Oaks: The Origins of the United Nations and the Search for Postwar Security. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990.

  5. Bretton Woods and the postwar economic order

    Event

    What happened

    In July 1944, delegates from 44 Allied nations meet at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. They agree to create the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, later part of the World Bank Group, to stabilize currencies and finance recovery.

    The rest is history

    The institutions were formally established in December 1945, once enough states had ratified, and began operations in 1946 and 1947. The IMF started financial operations in 1947. They later became specialized agencies linked to the United Nations through agreements. Alongside bodies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, founded in 1945, they reflected a belief that economic hardship had helped cause the war and that lasting peace needed economic cooperation. The UN Charter set up the Economic and Social Council to coordinate this work.

    Sources

    1. BookSteil, Benn. The Battle of Bretton Woods. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.
    2. PrimaryArticles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund. Bretton Woods, 22 July 1944.

  6. The San Francisco Conference

    Event

    What happened

    From 25 April to 26 June 1945, delegates of 50 nations meet in San Francisco to turn the Dumbarton Oaks proposals into a charter. Smaller states press for a stronger General Assembly, for provisions on human rights and for a trusteeship system for colonial territories. The Charter is signed on 26 June, and Poland, absent from the conference, signs later to become the 51st original member.

    The rest is history

    The Charter took effect on 24 October 1945, once China, France, the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States and a majority of other signatories had ratified it. The United States Senate approved it in July 1945 by a very large majority, in contrast to its rejection of the League. The Charter's preamble begins with the words 'We the peoples of the United Nations'. The General Assembly first met in London on 10 January 1946.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCharter of the United Nations. Signed at San Francisco, 26 June 1945.
    2. BookSchlesinger, Stephen C. Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations. Boulder: Westview Press, 2003.
    3. BookMeisler, Stanley. United Nations: The First Fifty Years. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995.

  7. Nuremberg and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

    Event

    What happened

    In 1945 and 1946 the Allies try leading Nazi officials before an international tribunal at Nuremberg. In December 1946 the new General Assembly affirms the principles used at Nuremberg. On 10 December 1948 it adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris, drafted by a commission chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt.

    The rest is history

    The Declaration was adopted by 48 votes with none against and eight abstentions. It is not a treaty, but it became the basis for later binding human rights treaties, including the two covenants of 1966. The Genocide Convention was adopted a day earlier. Together these steps reflected a postwar belief that how states treat their own people is a matter of international concern.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryUniversal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 217 A (III), 10 December 1948.
    2. BookGlendon, Mary Ann. A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. New York: Random House, 2001.

  8. The United Nations headquarters in New York

    Event

    What happened

    After the London session, the General Assembly debates where to settle. In December 1946 John D. Rockefeller Jr. offers to buy a stretch of land beside the East River in Manhattan, and the Assembly accepts. The Secretariat building is completed in 1952 and the General Assembly hall opens in 1952 to 1953.

    The rest is history

    The site was designed by an international board of architects, with Wallace Harrison as director of planning and Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer among its members. The grounds remain part of the United States, but under a headquarters agreement the UN controls the district and enjoys privileges and immunities there, and US officials may not enter it without consent. Other major UN offices operate in Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi.

    Sources

    1. BookMeisler, Stanley. United Nations: The First Fifty Years. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995.
    2. BookMires, Charlene. Capital of the World: The Race to Host the United Nations. New York: New York University Press, 2013.

  9. The United Nations as a world government

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A common claim holds that the United Nations is a kind of world government that can make laws and override national governments. Some fear it, and others hope it will become one.

    The rest is history

    The Charter says the organization is based on the sovereign equality of its members, and Article 2 bars it from intervening in matters essentially within a state's domestic jurisdiction, except for enforcement measures under Chapter VII. The General Assembly can only make recommendations on most subjects, though it does bind members on internal matters such as the budget. The Security Council is the only organ that can adopt decisions binding on states generally, and any of its five permanent members can veto them. Treaties bind only the states that join them. The UN has no standing army, and peacekeepers are supplied by member states.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCharter of the United Nations. Signed at San Francisco, 26 June 1945, Articles 2, 10 to 14, 24 and 27.
    2. BookWeiss, Thomas G., and Sam Daws, eds. The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

  10. Roosevelt and the name United Nations

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A well-known story says Roosevelt thought of the name 'United Nations' and surprised Churchill with it, bursting in on him as he got out of the bath at the White House in late December 1941.

    The rest is history

    Roosevelt did propose the name, and Churchill agreed. It replaced earlier ideas such as 'Associated Powers'. The bath story is a popular anecdote, told in several versions, and it rests on later recollections rather than a contemporary record. The Declaration by United Nations was signed on 1 January 1942, and the name was used for the Allies in the war. It was then carried over to the postwar organization.

    Sources

    1. BookSchlesinger, Stephen C. Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations. Boulder: Westview Press, 2003.
    2. PrimaryDeclaration by United Nations. Signed at Washington, 1 January 1942.

  11. The UN was built only by the great powers

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that the United Nations was simply imposed by the victorious great powers, and that smaller countries had no say in its shape.

    The rest is history

    The great powers did draft the main proposals and secured the veto. But at San Francisco, smaller states changed the text. They widened the General Assembly's right to discuss any matter within the Charter, strengthened the Economic and Social Council and the language on human rights, and added the right of self-defence in Article 51 and a Declaration on non-self-governing territories. Latin American and Commonwealth delegations were especially active. The result was a compromise, not a dictation.

    Sources

    1. BookSchlesinger, Stephen C. Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations. Boulder: Westview Press, 2003.
    2. BookMazower, Mark. No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.

← Back to the outline