Editing Washington Naval Treaty (section)

==Background==
Immediately after World War I, Britain still had the world's largest and most powerful navy, followed by the United States and, more distantly, by Japan, France and Italy.{{cn | reason = measured how? tonnage? firepower?|date=July 2024}} The British [[Royal Navy]] interned the defeated [[German High Seas Fleet]] in November 1918. The [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] had differing opinions concerning the final disposition of the [[Imperial German Navy]], with the French and Italians wanting the German fleet divided between the victorious powers and the Americans and British wanting the ships destroyed. The negotiations became mostly moot after the German crews [[scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow|scuttled most of their ships]] on 21 June 1919.

News of the scuttling angered the French and the Italians, with the French particularly unimpressed with British explanations that the fleet guarding the Germans had then been away on exercises. Nevertheless, the British joined their allies in condemning the German actions, and no credible evidence emerged to suggest that the British had collaborated with the Germans with respect to the scuttling. The [[Treaty of Versailles]], signed a week later on 28 June 1919, imposed strict limits on the sizes and numbers of warships which the newly-installed [[Weimar Republic|German government]] had the right to build and maintain.<ref name="Versailles">{{cite book | title=Treaty of Versailles | chapter=Part V. Military, Naval and Air Clauses | chapter-url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles/Part_V#Article_181 | publisher=Wikisource |date=June 28, 1919 |access-date=24 August 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824071321/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles/Part_V#Article_181 | archive-date=24 August 2023 }}</ref>

The Americans, British, French, Italians, and Japanese had been allies during World War I, but with the German threat seemingly finished, a naval [[arms race]] between the allies seemed likely.{{Sfn | Marriott | 2005 | p = 9}} US President [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s administration had already announced successive plans for the expansion of the [[US Navy]] from 1916 to 1919 that would have resulted in a massive fleet of 50 modern battleships.{{Sfn | Potter | 1981 | p = 232}}

In response, the [[Japanese Diet]] in 1920 finally authorised construction of warships to enable the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] to attain its goal of an [[eight-eight fleet|"eight-eight" fleet programme]], with eight modern battleships and eight battlecruisers. The Japanese started work on four battleships and four battlecruisers, all of which were much larger and more powerful than those of the classes that they were replacing.{{Sfn | Evans | Peattie | 1997 | p = 174}}

The 1921 [[History of the Royal Navy (after 1707)|British Naval Estimates]] planned four battleships and four battlecruisers, with another four battleships to follow the subsequent year.{{Sfn | Marriott | 2005 | p = 9}}

The new arms race was unwelcome to the American public. The [[US Congress]] disapproved of Wilson's 1919 naval expansion plan, and the [[1920 United States presidential election|1920 presidential election]] campaign resulted in politicians in Washington resuming the [[United States non-interventionism|non-interventionism]] of the prewar era, with little enthusiasm for continued naval expansion.{{Sfn | Potter | 1981 | p = 233}} Britain also could ill afford the exorbitant cost of capital ships.{{Sfn | Kennedy | 1983 | p = 274}}

In late 1921, the US became aware that Britain was planning a conference to discuss the strategic situation in the Pacific and [[Far East]] regions. To forestall the British plan and to satisfy domestic demands for a global [[disarmament]] conference, [[Warren Harding]]'s administration called the Washington Naval Conference in November 1921.{{Sfn | Marriott | 2005 | p = 10}}

The Conference agreed to the Five-Power Naval Treaty as well as a [[Four-Power Treaty]] on Japan and a [[Nine-Power Treaty]] on China.<ref name="Brittanica">{{cite web |title=Washington Conference {{!}} 1921–1922 | url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Washington-Conference-1921-1922 | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | access-date=6 April 2019 }}</ref>