The Atlantic Charter
8/14/1941
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At their first conference during World War II, from August 9-12, 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill held nine face-to-face meetings on board naval vessels anchored in Placentia Bay, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The conference was devoted to an agreement on war aims and a vision for the future between at-war Great Britain and the technically neutral United States.
The document created at this meeting was the The Atlantic Charter. It set forth the concepts of self-determination, end to colonialism, freedom of the seas, and the improvement of living and working conditions for all people. Many of the ideas were similar to those proposed by President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points during World War I, which were not accepted by allies at the Versailles Conference.
One of the major provisions of the Atlantic Charter declared as follows:
The document created at this meeting was the The Atlantic Charter. It set forth the concepts of self-determination, end to colonialism, freedom of the seas, and the improvement of living and working conditions for all people. Many of the ideas were similar to those proposed by President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points during World War I, which were not accepted by allies at the Versailles Conference.
One of the major provisions of the Atlantic Charter declared as follows:
[A]fter the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, [we] hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want. ...[S]uch a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance.The agreement is often cited as one of the first significant steps towards the formation of the United Nations.
Transcript
The Atlantic CharterThe President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's Government in The United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.
1. Their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other.
2. They desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.
3. They respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.
4. They will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor of vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity.
5. They desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security.
6. After the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want.
7. Such as peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance.
8. They believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons, must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measures which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston S. Churchill
August 14, 1941
This primary source comes from the Records of the Office of War Information.
National Archives Identifier: 7387459
Full Citation: Poster 208-AOP-33-35; The Atlantic Charter; 8/14/1941; Original Artwork for World War II Posters, 1942 - 1945; Records of the Office of War Information, Record Group 208; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/atlantic-charter, December 7, 2024]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
