木瓜影院 Group Archives is frequently asked, 鈥淲hen was the World Bank born?鈥 Well, there isn鈥檛 just one birthday for the Bank. There are three! The first came 76 years ago in July 1944, when . Their objective was to establish a system of international cooperation that would help countries recover from the devastation wrought by the Second World War while facilitating long-term economic growth for recovering and developing nations alike. While years of planning and discussion preceded the conference, it was during these 22 days in July 1944 that the Articles of Agreement for both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were produced. The last "birthday" came in June 1946 when . But what happened in between?
Imagine the delegates at Bretton Woods going back to their home countries in 1944 to advocate for membership in the World Bank and IMF, which would benefit their own economic prosperity and provide tangible benefits of being part of a larger multilateral community of nations. Not only did they need to create and put the legal instruments in place for their national or federal systems, but they were also keeping an eye on the major stakeholders 鈥 the United States and the United Kingdom 鈥 to see if those governments agreed to sign on. Over the next 18 months the debates within and between governments, in addition to the court of public opinion, were raging, but by early December 1945 it appeared that there were enough countries ready to commit. Indeed on December 27, 1945, 75 years ago this month, representatives from twenty-one countries convened in Washington, DC to become the Bank鈥檚 first members, thereby .
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To mark the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the Bank鈥檚 Articles of Agreement, the WBG Archives is launching several new products. First, our new video titled 鈥淯ncover the Treasures of the World Bank Group Archives鈥. This short video describes the possibilities available to researchers when they 鈥渏ump in and explore鈥 the holdings of the World Bank Group Archives. Click the image to the right or the link at the top right of this screen to view.
Finally, below we provide links to country historic profiles for all the countries that signed the World Bank's Articles of Agreement on December 27th, 1945 and the weeks that followed. Each profile contains information about the Bank鈥檚 engagement with the country, such as membership, important 鈥渇irsts,鈥 and links to other historical resources such as photos, reports, oral histories and more. Browse the profiles and learn more about each country while getting a sense of the information available from the World Bank Group Archives.
These profiles and profiles for other World Bank members are available on our new . We encourage you to check it out!