Kellogg-Briand Pact

Also known as the Pact of Paris.

It was a treaty between the United States and other nations "providing for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy".

It was proposed in 1927 by [Aristide Briand]?, foreign minister of France, as a treaty between the USA and France outlawing war between the two countries. [Frank B. Kellogg]?, the U.S. Secretary of State, responded with a proposal for a general pact against war.

After negotiations it was signed in Paris on August 27, 1928 by eleven states - the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Czechoslovkia?, Germany, Great Britain, India, [Irish Free State]?, Italy, New Zealand, and South Africa. Four states added their support before it was proclaimed - Poland (in March), Belgium (in March), France (in March), and Japan (in April). It was proclaimed on July 24, 1929. Sixty-two nations ultimately signed up to the pact.

The pact never made any real contribution to international peace and quickly proved to be meaningless, especially after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria? in 1931 and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.