Atlantic Charter

1. Atlantic Charter Samantha Sones

2. What is the Atlantic Charter? • A declaration of eight common principles in international relations drawn up by Churchill and Roosevelt in August 1941, which provided the ideological basis for the United Nations organization • In spring 1941 the aid Roosevelt had promised at Charlottesville had begun to flow to Great Britain, where Winston Churchill was now prime minister. In July 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill met for the first time in Argentia Bay off Newfoundland, to issue a joint declaration on the purposes of the war against fascism. • Besides specifying peacetime goals, the charter contained Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, which he had outlined in his speech to the U.S. Congress on January 6, 1941 • This came after Wilson’s Fourteen Points

3. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. • The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world. • The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world. • The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world. • The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.

4. Doubts • Originally the Soviet Union, which had been attacked by Germany the month before, was to sign the charter as well. But the notion of "one world," in which nations abandoned their traditional beliefs in and reliance upon military alliances and spheres of influence, did not appeal to Joseph Stalin • Churchill wasn’t particularly thrilled either. Only Roosevelt, who had been a member of the Wilson administration, truly believed in the possibility of a world governed by democratic processes, with an international organization serving as an arbiter of disputes and protector of the peace.

5. The Actual Atlantic Charter • The 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. • First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other; • Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned; • Third, 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; • Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity; • Fifth, 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; • Sixth, 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; • Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance; • Eighth, 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 http://youtu.be/AxWgUNxFgsE

6. Vision for Post-War Settlement The eight principal points of the Charter were: • no territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom; • territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned; • all peoples had a right to self-determination; • trade barriers were to be lowered; • there was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare; • the participants would work for a world free of want and fear; • the participants would work for freedom of the seas; • there was to be disarmament of aggressor nations, and a postwar common disarmament.

7. Impact on WWII • A joint proclamation by the United States and Britain declaring that they were fighting the Axis powers to "ensure life, liberty, independence and religious freedom and to preserve the rights of man and justice.“ • The Atlantic Charter served as a foundation stone for the later establishment of the United Nations, setting forth several principles for the nations of the world, including -- the renunciation of all aggression, right to self-government, access to raw materials, freedom from want and fear, freedom of the seas, and disarmament of aggressor nations.

9. Works Cited • http://www.google.com/dictionary?q=Atlantic+charter&sl=en&tl=en&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_RCdTc2MHIictwf67vzJBw&ved=0CBwQkQ4 • http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_Atlantic_charter • http://usinfo.org/docs/democracy/53.htm • http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/atlantic-chart.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Charter