Washington Naval Treaty

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The Washington Naval Treaty limited the naval armaments of its five signatories: the United States, the British Empire, the Empire of Japan, the French Third Republic, and Italy.

It was signed by representatives of the nations in Washington, D.C. on February 6, 1922. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on March 29, 1922; President Warren G. Harding signed it on June 9, 1923; the ratifications were deposited with the U.S. federal government on August 17, 1923, and were proclaimed on August 21, 1923.

The terms of the treaty were modified by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936. By the time of the latter, Japan had declared it would no longer abide by the terms of the treaty and Italy was secretly ignoring it. Germany was never affected by the Washington or London treaties; its naval construction was controlled under the Treaty of Versailles, the peace treaty that ended World War I.

1 Background
2 Terms
3 Effects
4 External links

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Background

In the aftermath of World War I the British Empire had the world's largest and most powerful navy, followed closely by the United States and more distantly by Japan. All three embarked upon large programmes of new capital ships (battleships and battlecruisers). In 1920, the United States had declared an aim to produce a navy "second to none," and had already laid down keels for five battleships and four battlecruisers. Japan was at the start of an 8:8 program (eight battleships and eight battlecruisers). In early 1921 the British finalized the design and ordered four very large battlecruisers with plans for four matching battleships to follow. This burst of capital ship construction kindled fears of a new naval arms race, similar to the Anglo-German Dreadnought race leading up to World War I.

At the time, the United States' economic power was considerably greater than its potential rivals. Its Gross Domestic Product was approximately three times larger than the Great Britain and six times larger than Japan. While the United States had the economic wherewithal to outbuild the other maritime powers, rising isolationism meant that domestic political support for such an ambitious program was lacking. The Japanese and British empire were linked by the Anglo-Japanese Alliance whihc included mutual defence. The prospect of a naval limitation treaty offered the American government a chance to appeal to isolationist sentiment at home while offering the Japanese and British governments a more favorable balance of power compared to the United States than they could have achieved on the building ways.

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Terms

After specifying some exceptions for ships in current use and under construction, the treaty limited the total capital ship tonnage of each of the signatories: the United States Navy and the Royal Navy could not exceed 525,000 tons (533,000 t), the French Navy and the Italian Navy were limited to 175,000 tons (178,000 t), and the Japanese Navy to 315,000 tons (320,000 t). No single ship could exceed 35,000 tons (35,560 t), and no ship could carry a gun in excess of 16 inches (406 mm).

The tonnage was defined in the treaty to exclude fuel (and boiler water) because Britain argued that their global activities demanded higher fuel loads than other nations and they should not be penalised.

Aircraft carriers were addressed specifically: the total tonnage for carriers of the United States and the British Empire was limited to 135,000 tons (137,000 t); for France and Italy 60,000 tons (61,000 t); and for Japan 81,000 tons (82,000 t). Only two carriers per nation could exceed 27,000 tons (27,400 t), and those two were limited to 33,000 tons (33,500 t) each. The number of large guns carried by an aircraft carrier was sharply limited—it was not legal to put a small aircraft on a battleship and call it an aircraft carrier.

As to fortifications and naval bases, the United States, the British Empire, and Japan agreed to maintain the status quo at the time of the signing. No new fortifications or naval bases could be established, and existing bases and defences could not be improved in the territories and possessions specified. In general, the specified areas allowed construction on the main coasts of the countries, but not on smaller island territories. For example, the United States could build on Hawaii and the Alaskan mainland, but not on the Aleutian Islands. The various navies of the British Empire — considered under the treaty as one entity — were treated similarly and the facilities of the Royal Australian Navy (which had to give up the battlecruiser HMAS Australia) and the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy could be built up by their respective governments, but not the base of Hong Kong. Japan could build on the home islands, but not Formosa.

Treaty members were allowed to replace or build ships within the terms of the Treaty but any build or replacement had to be directly communicated to the other Treaty signatories.

On December 29 1934, the Japanese government gave notice that it intended to terminate the treaty. Its provisions remained in force until the end of 1936, and it was not renewed.

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Effects

In Europe, the Treaty changed planned building programs for most of the signatories. The British gave up their planned N3 battleships and G3 battlecruisers. Almost all of the forces built new designs in the new "heavy cruiser" class, but at the same time few new battleships were built. Instead, extensive conversions were made to existing battleships and battlecruisers, resulting in fleets in World War II that consisted primarily of ships laid-down before World War I. The United States built no new battleships until the keel of North Carolina was laid in October 1937 — a span of nearly 20 years.

A number of attempts were made to build new battleship designs within the Treaty limitations. The need to increase armor and firepower while keeping weight under the Washington limit resulted in experimental new designs like the British Nelson-class (based in part on the G3 design) and the French Richelieu.

In general ship effectiveness is related to speed, armor and armament. Weight is related to ship length which permits higher speeds. Each nation used a different approach to circumvent the treaties. The US used high strength boilers for higher speeds in a smaller ship. Germany used high strength steels for better armor and lower weight. Britain designed ships that could have armor added after a war began, and in the case of HMS Rodney and HMS Nelson used waterfilled "fuel tanks" as armour. Italy simply lied about the tonnage of their ships. Japan withdrew from the treaty in 1936, and continued the building program that they had previously begun, to include placing 18.1 inch (460 mm) guns on battleship Yamato.

The majority of European nations were not concerned with military operations far from land, and therefore there was little interest in aircraft carrier construction. The Germans, French and Italians did not bother with carriers until WWII was clearly looming, at which point all of them started construction in small numbers. The Royal Navy, tasked with long-range operations the world over, clearly needed carriers and so continued construction. Between 1920 (prior to the treaty) and the start of WWII the British built six new carriers, all various one-off designs. The US had six carriers at the start of the war, not including the old CV-1, Langley, as she had been converted to a seaplane carrier (AV-3) in 1936 to allow for the completion of Wasp (CV-7). After the Washington Treaty terminated, the US laid down six new carriers, starting with Hornet (CV-8) (a repeat Yorktown) and Essex (CV-9) (the first of a new class). Japan converted incomplete battleship Kaga and battlecruiser Akagi to aircraft carriers to conform to Washington Naval Treaty. These conversions provided much needed experiences and helped to build future classes of aircraft carriers. Japan had ten carriers at the start of the war.

The French were not pleased with the treaty. They had argued that they should be allowed a larger fleet than Italy, since France had to maintain a fleet in both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, but the Italians had to be concerned only with the Mediterranean. This would obviously imply that the Italian presence in the Mediterranean would be stronger than the French. Nevertheless, they signed the treaty, partially reassured by their alliance with the British.

The effects of the Treaty on the United States could not have been more different. The Treaty, coupled with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, was a major cause of the United States Navy's conversion from a battleship fleet to a carrier-based force.

The United States was over the limits in capital ships when the treaty was ratified, and had to decommission or disarm several older vessels in order to comply. However, the only aircraft carrier in the US fleet before the treaty was signed was USS Langley (CV-1) (11,500 tons, 11,700 t), a converted collier. Not only did carriers have separate limits, but as an experimental vessel, Langley did not count against the tonnage restrictions. The US Navy thus had a free rein to build carriers.

In the 1920s the Department of the Navy had a low opinion of the concept of naval aviation despite (or perhaps because of) Billy Mitchell's 1921 success in using Army bombers to sink the captured German battleship Ostfriesland. However, to comply with the treaty, two battlecruisers of the Lexington class still under construction, USS Lexington (CC-1) (43,500 tons, 44,200 t) and USS Saratoga (CC-3) (43,500 tons, 44,200 t), had to be disposed of. They were converted into carriers USS Lexington (CV-2) (33,000 tons, 33,500 t) and USS Saratoga (CV-3) (33,000 tons, 33,500 t), although that choice was only slightly preferred over scrapping. However they were also equipped with eight 8-inch guns, the maximum number of that calibre allowed by the treaty for aircraft carriers bigger than 27,000 tons. The carriers were subject to a great deal of creative accounting as to their tonnage, both were far closer to 40,000 tons at the time they were commissioned.

In 1931, the United States was still well under the treaty's limit on carriers. USS Ranger (CV-4) (14,500 tons, 14,700 t) was the first US carrier designed as such — no other class of capital ship could be built — and the Navy began incorporating the lessons from those first four carriers into the design of two more. In 1933, Congress passed Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" package of legislation, which included nearly $40 million for the two new carriers: Yorktown (CV-5) (19,800 tons, 20,100 t) and Enterprise (CV-6) (19,800 tons, 20,100 t). Still bound by the 135,000 ton (137,000 t) limit, the keel of the final US pre-war Treaty carrier Wasp (CV-7) (14,700 tons, 14,900 t) was laid down on April 1, 1936. The US Carrier Fleet now totaled 135,000 tons (137,000 t) and there it remained until the treaty was terminated by Japan in 1936.

The Naval treaty had a profound effect on the Japanese who saw the 5:5:3 ratio of ships as another way of being snubbed by the West. This was one of the factors that contributed to the deterioration of the relationship between The United States and the Japanese Empire. The unfairness, at least in the eyes of the Japanese also is what let to the pullout in 1936. Isoroku Yamamoto, who later masterminded the Pearl Harbour attack, held that Japan should remain in the treaty. This was simply because he felt that the United States could out produce Japan by a greater factor than the 5:3 ratio, due to the United States's huge production capacity. He felt that other methods could be found to even the odds. He was not able to hold sway and Japan left the treaty in 1936

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