Four Freedoms and Atlantic Charter
On January 6th, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a speech that would transcend politics. He called upon his fellow citizens to embrace a world founded on four fundamental human freedoms: Freedom of Speech and Expression, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.
These worldly ideals resurfaced in August 1941, when British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, joined Roosevelt in signing the Atlantic Charter. This pact expanded on Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” by articulating a set of principles that included open access to trade and raw materials, the tools with which to achieve economic prosperity, including improved labor standards and social security, the right of all people to choose their own form of government, and a freedom from the use of force. The Charter also represents the first formal articulation of the desire of the two leaders to support the establishment of a postwar international security organization—what would become the United Nations.
On January 1st, 1942, the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia, all endorsed the principles outlined in the Atlantic Charter in a document entitled "Declaration by United Nations." Hence the phrase United Nations initially refered to the group of nations committed to the ultimate defeat of the Axis powers in the war. By war's end, it would prove to be the foundation for the collective of countries to be named the United Nations.