Bretton Woods

American global supremacy rested partly on economic institutions created at a United Nations conference at Bretton Woods, NH, in July 1944. The World Bank provided loans for the reconstruction of war-torn Europe as well as for the developing Third World countries.

The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial states in the mid 20th century. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent nation-states.