1944Reputable sourceWell documented
Bretton Woods and the Dollar Order
On the timeline · around 1944 · The Modern Age of Money
What happened
As the Second World War drew to a close, delegates from 44 nations met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to rebuild the shattered world economy. They created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and pegged the world's currencies to the U.S. dollar, which was in turn fixed to gold — putting the dollar at the center of global finance.
Why it matters
The Bretton Woods system gave the postwar world decades of monetary stability and made the U.S. dollar the world's reserve currency — a position it holds to this day.
Sources
- Federal Reserve History. Creation of the Bretton Woods System · Reputable source