Eichengreen describes how the international usage of the US dollar spread once the US central bank was established in 1913, the US economy grew, and the UK was weakened by the First World War. The Allied powers met at Bretton Woods in the US in 1944 to plan the post-WWII international financial system. They agreed on an indirect gold standard. The gold price would be fixed in US dollars. Other currencies would then be pegged to the dollar, reinforcing its role as the dominant currency