Cumulative tonnage limits and detailed specifications for carriers and capital ships show that negotiators ranked naval aviation highly. Other ship categories received a simpler ceiling on individual displacement and gun caliber instead of the same cumulative restrictions. Older regional or weapon-specific agreements lacked the Washington system's broader limits on categories, totals, and characteristics. On that definition, Washington supplied the recognizable model later strategic arms negotiations would inherit.
Chapter · 49:03-52:09
How the Washington treaty became a modern arms-control model
Treaty records place carriers alongside capital ships in the most detailed limits and show why Washington became a template for later arms-control agreements.