---
title: "Bretton Woods — Definition & Meaning | Model Diplomat"
description: "Bretton Woods is the 1944 conference that established a monetary system with fixed exchange rates to the US dollar, creating the IMF and World Bank."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/bretton-woods"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- Bretton Woods refers to the 1944 conference and resulting monetary system that fixed exchange rates to the gold-convertible US dollar and created the IMF and World Bank.
- What were the two institutions created at Bretton Woods in 1944?
- How did the Bretton Woods exchange-rate system work?
- Why and when did the Bretton Woods system collapse?
- What was the difference between the Keynes and White plans?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

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## Timeline

1. 22 July 1944

   The Bretton Woods system was established at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held from 1 to at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woo…

2. 15 August 1971

   On President Richard Nixon suspended the dollar's convertibility into gold — the "Nixon Shock" — and the Smithsonian Agreement of December 1971 failed to re…

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Example

In July 1944, delegates led by Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes signed the Bretton Woods Articles, creating the IMF and World Bank and pegging the dollar to gold at US$35 per ounce.

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