The Bretton Woods Conference and the two institutions it created

Background

In July 1944, one year before the end of World War II, delegates from 44 countries met for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
The conference aimed to create the framework for post-war international economic cooperation and reconstruction.
Its intellectual leaders were John Maynard Keynes, Adviser to the Treasury in the United Kingdom, and Harry Dexter White, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the United States.
The conference resulted in the formation of two institutions, the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is the World Bank.
Most of the time at the conference went to the IMF Commission under Harry Dexter White, while the World Bank Commission's work occurred only in the last few days.
The World Bank's articles of agreement, primarily drafted by John Maynard Keynes, covered rebuilding war-devastated economies and increasing the economic development of developing countries.
The Bank's first loan was to France, and the first loan to a non-European country was to Chile in 1948 for $13.5M USD for hydroelectric power generation.
The International Finance Corporation was established in 1956 and the International Development Association was created in 1960 for less creditworthy members.