History of the United Nations Charter

The United Nations Charter is the treaty that established the United Nations.

The following series of events led to the writing of the Charter, and the UN's founding.

12 June 1941 - The Declaration of St. James's Palace

In June 1941, London was the home of nine exiled governments. The great British capital had already seen twenty-two months of war and in the bomb-marked city, air-raid sirens wailed all too frequently. Practically all Europe had fallen to the Axis and ships on the Atlantic, carrying vital supplies, sank with grim regularity. But in London itself and among the Allied governments and peoples, faith in ultimate victory remained unshaken. And, even more, people were looking beyond military victory to the postwar future.

14 August 1941 - The Atlantic Charter 

Two months after the London Declaration came the next step to a world organization, the result of a dramatic meeting between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill.

1 January 1942 - The Declaration of the United Nations 

Representatives of 26 countries fighting the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, decide to support the by Signing the Declaration of the United Nations. 

1943 - Moscow and Teheran Conference 

Thus by 1943 all the principal Allied nations were committed to outright victory and, thereafter, to an attempt to create a world in which “men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want.” But the basis for a world organization had yet to be defined, and such a definition came at the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union in October 1943. 

1944-1945 - Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta  

The principles of the world organization-to-be were thus laid down. But it is a long step from defining the principles and purpose of such a body to setting up the structure. A blueprint had to be prepared, and it had to be accepted by many nations.

1945 - San Francisco Conference 

Forty-five nations, including the four sponsors, were originally invited to the San Francisco Conference: nations which had declared war on Germany and Japan and had subscribed to the United Nations Declaration.