ABC Powers

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The ABC Powers refers in diplomacy to the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. They have been referred to by this name since the beginning of the 20th century, especially in reference to the diplomatic ABC Powers Conference of 1914:

On May 20, 1914, the ABC Powers met in Niagara Falls, Canada, to mediate diplomatically in order to avoid a state of war between the United States and Mexico over the Veracruz Incident and the Tampico Affair.

At the conference, the United States was represented by Frederick W. Lehmann (a former United States Solicitor General) and Joseph Rucker Lamar (an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States).

The ABC Treaty of May 1915 provided for arbitration of disputes and set up a permanent mediation commission. The powers functioned jointly the same year in mediating a dispute between Colombia and Peru.