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HIS 100 - Perspectives in History

Tulsa Massacre, Wounded Knee Occupation, Stonewall Rebellion, Haitian Independence, Philippine Revolution, Iranian Revolution, The Great London Smog, Creation of Earth Day, Chernobyl, Creation of the UN, Act Prohibiting Slavery, Founding of NATO

Creation of the United Nations

The United Nations (UN), which was the successor to the failed League of Nations, is an international association of governments. The UN facilitates cooperation in international law, security, economic development, and social equity. It was founded in 1945 and counts 193 nations as members.

(Please note, encyclopedias/tertiary sources should NOT be cited in your assignment. Scroll down for primary and secondary sources).

Primary Sources

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The Charter of the United Nations is the founding document of the United Nations. It was signed on June 26, 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, and came into force on October 24, 1945.

United Nations. (1945). Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice. New York: United Nations, Office of Public Information.

The Atlantic Charter (August 14, 1941) was a declaration between the United States and Great Britain during World War II that is often thought of as a precursor of the United Nations.

Roosevelt, F. D. & Churchill, W. S. (14 Aug 1941). Atlantic Charter. The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Poster with the United Nations organizational chart and illustrations of its goals. Published in 1947.

Article in Foreign Affairs written by Sir Gladwyn Jebb, Acting Secretary of the United Nations from October 1945 to February 1946. This article describes the position of the United Nations in world politics. 

This article looks at the continuing crisis in world civilization two years after the open hostilities of World War II. The United Nations has won a global war waged in the name of freedom and democracy, but nations are far from agreement upon what they mean by their great wars.

Secondary Sources

This article discusses the conditions under which the United Nations was created.

This article discusses how the United States sponsored campaigns on behalf of the United Nations.

An essay is presented on what the world would be like if there were no United Nations (UN). It traces the history of the UN and its successes and failures since its creation in 1945. The author refers to the League of Nations as another organization of international relations and a precursor to the UN and discusses its relation to globalization.

This book discusses the organization's effectiveness as he provides a clear understanding of how it was originally conceived, how it has come to its present form, and how it must confront new challenges in a rapidly changing world.

In this book, the author looks at the origins of the U.N. before examining a range of organizations and players in the United Nations system and analyzing its international work in the key arenas of diplomacy, social & economic development programs, peace-keeping, and human rights.