# Bretton Woods The *Bretton Woods system* is the international monetary convention by the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. The Bretton Woods system was the first example an an international and negotiated order intended to establish a means of doing international monetary relations among independent states. The Bretton wood system was based on the [gold standard](gold-standard.md) and establish the [dollar](dollar.md) as a the international [reserve-currency](reserve-currency.md). In 1971 the United States terminated convertibility of the US dollar to [gold](gold.md), removing the United States from the gold standard and transitioned to a pure *fiat money* system. This ended the Bretton Woods system.