During the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, 44 countries agreed to position the US Dollar as the world reserve currency as part of their agenda to shape the economic future of the world following the devastation of the Second World War.   The Conference provided an exchange rate system that pegged the currency of a particular nation to the dollar. In effect, the participating countries sought to use the stability of the US Dollar as a solid foundation that prevented nations from simply devaluing their currency to compete with other countries.