The
Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the
Five-Power Treaty, and including the "Four-Power Treaty" and the "Nine-power Treaty" was a treaty among the major nations that had won
World War I, which agreed to prevent an
arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the
Washington Naval Conference, held in
Washington, D.C., from November 1921 to February 1922, and it was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. It limited the construction of
battleships,
battlecruisers and
aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including
cruisers,
destroyers and
submarines, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited to 10,000 tons
displacement.