The Atlantic Charter: Roosevelt & Churchill's 1941 Blueprint for the Post-War World

On August 14, 1941, aboard HMS Prince of Wales in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter—a joint declaration of eight principles for a peaceful post-war order.

The Eight Points

1. No territorial aggrandizement
2. Self-determination for all peoples
3. Free trade and economic cooperation
4. Reduced armaments
5. International collaboration on labor, economic, and social standards
6. Freedom from want and fear
7. Freedom of the seas
8. Establishment of a permanent general security system (the future United Nations)

Impact

Endorsed by all Allied governments, the Charter became the moral compass for the war effort and the foundation for the UN Charter (1945), the Bretton Woods system, and decolonization movements worldwide.