Peace treaty

The Treaty of Versailles, signed at the conclusion of World War I
The "Peace Memorial" about the Treaty of Nöteborg at the Orekhovy Island
Tablet of one of the earliest recorded treaties in history, Treaty of Kadesh, at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum
Peace-treaty of Zadar (1358), which ended the war between the Croato-Hungarian Kingdom and the Republic of Venice, forcing the latter to withdraw from Croatian coast

Agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties.

- Peace treaty
The Treaty of Versailles, signed at the conclusion of World War I

440 related topics

Relevance
Moshe Dayan and Abdullah el Tell reach a ceasefire agreement during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War in Jerusalem on 30 November 1948

Conflict resolution

Conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution.

Conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution.

Moshe Dayan and Abdullah el Tell reach a ceasefire agreement during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War in Jerusalem on 30 November 1948
The Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau (illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company)

Wars can conclude with a peace agreement, which is a "formal agreement... which addresses the disputed incompatibility, either by settling all or part of it, or by clearly outlining a process for how [...] to regulate the incompatibility."

Cover of the English version

Treaty of Versailles

Cover of the English version
The heads of the "Big Four" nations at the Paris Peace Conference, 27 May 1919. From left to right: David Lloyd George, Vittorio Orlando, Georges Clemenceau, and Woodrow Wilson
British Prime Minister David Lloyd George
German delegate Johannes Bell signing the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors, with various Allied delegations sitting and standing in front of him
German colonies (light blue) were made into League of Nations mandates.
Workmen decommissioning a heavy gun, to comply with the treaty
Location of the Rhineland (yellow)
A British news placard announcing the signing of the peace treaty
Senator Borah, Lodge and Johnson refuse Lady Peace a seat, referring to efforts by Republican isolationists to block ratification of Treaty of Versailles establishing the League of Nations
German delegates in Versailles: Professor Walther Schücking, Reichspostminister Johannes Giesberts, Justice Minister Otto Landsberg, Foreign Minister Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau, Prussian State President Robert Leinert, and financial advisor Carl Melchior
Demonstration against the treaty in front of the Reichstag
Medal issued by the Japanese authorities in 1919, commemorating the Treaty of Versailles. Obv: Flags of the five allies of World War I. Rev: Peace standing in Oriental attire with the Palace of Versailles in the background
A crowd awaits the plebiscite results in Oppeln
French soldiers in the Ruhr, which resulted in the American withdrawal from the Rhineland
Adolf Hitler announcing the Anschluß in violation of Art. 80 on the Heldenplatz, Vienna, 15 March 1938
John Maynard Keynes, the principal representative of the British Treasury, referred to the Treaty of Versailles as a "Carthaginian peace".
Commemorative medal issued in 1929 in the Republic of Weimar on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles. The obverse depicts George Clemenceau presenting a bound treaty, decorated with skull and crossbones to Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau. Other members of the Conference are standing behind Clemenceau, including Lloyd-George, Wilson and Orlando.
American political cartoon depicting the contemporary view of German reparations, 1921
Map of territorial changes in Europe after World War I (as of 1923)

The Treaty of Versailles (Traité de Versailles; Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I.

The historic town hall of Münster where the treaty was signed

Peace of Westphalia

The historic town hall of Münster where the treaty was signed
Dutch envoy Adriaan Pauw enters Münster around 1646 for the peace negotiations
Sebastian Dadler undated medal (1648), Christina of Sweden, portrait with feathered helmet right. Obverse
The reverse of this medal: Christina of Sweden as Minerva holding an olive branch in her left arm and grasping the tree of knowledge with her right hand.
A map showing European borders in 1648
The Holy Roman Empire in 1648
Allegory of the Peace of Westphalia, by Jacob Jordaens.

The Peace of Westphalia (Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster.

Vietnam Peace Agreement

Paris Peace Accords

Vietnam Peace Agreement
The approximate areas of control at the time of the signing of the Accord. The South Vietnamese government controlled about 80 percent of the territory and 90 percent of the population, although many areas were contested.
Signing the peace accords
PAVN prisoners released, Thạch Hãn River, 24 February 1973
210 prisoners from the Bien Hoa POW Camp refuse repatriation and want to remain in South Vietnam sit with signs at Bien Hoa Air Base, 25 March

The Paris Peace Accords, (Hiệp định Paris về Việt Nam) officially titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam (Hiệp định về chấm dứt chiến tranh, lập lại hòa bình ở Việt Nam), was a peace treaty signed on January 27, 1973, to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War.

Ratification of the Treaty of Münster, 1648

Armistice

Formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting.

Formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting.

Ratification of the Treaty of Münster, 1648
The announcing of the armistice on November 11, 1918 was the occasion for large celebrations in the Allied nations.
Armistice of Cassibile between Italians and Anglo-Americans (1943)
Delegates sign the Korean Armistice Agreement

An armistice is a modus vivendi and is not the same as a peace treaty, which may take months or even years to agree on.

House of Nasrid surrenders to Spain: Boabdil gives the Granada key to Ferdinand and Isabella.

Surrender (military)

Relinquishment of control over territory, combatants, fortifications, ships or armament to another power.

Relinquishment of control over territory, combatants, fortifications, ships or armament to another power.

House of Nasrid surrenders to Spain: Boabdil gives the Granada key to Ferdinand and Isabella.
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull, depicting the British surrendering to French (left) and American (right) troops. Oil on canvas, 1820
Representatives on board the USS Missouri (BB-63) to effect Japan's unconditional surrender at the end of World War II
Lt. Gen. A. A. K. Niazi signing the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender in Dhaka on 16 Dec 1971, following India's victory in the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War
Allied troops surrender to Japanese troops in Singapore, during WW2.

A sovereign state may surrender following defeat in a war, usually by signing a peace treaty or capitulation agreement.

A truce – not a compromise, since a chance for high-toned gentlemen to retire gracefully from their very civil declarations of war. By Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, February 17, 1877, p. 132.

Ceasefire

Temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions.

Temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions.

A truce – not a compromise, since a chance for high-toned gentlemen to retire gracefully from their very civil declarations of war. By Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, February 17, 1877, p. 132.
British and German officers after arranging the German handover of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the surrounding area, negotiated during a temporary truce, April 1945

Ceasefires may be abused by parties as cover to re-arm or reposition forces, and they typically fail, when they are referred to as 'failed ceasefires'; however, successful ceasefires may be followed by armistices and then by peace treaties.

The Moroccan-American Treaty of Peace and Friendship, sealed by Sultan Mohammed III.

Treaty

Formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law.

Formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law.

The Moroccan-American Treaty of Peace and Friendship, sealed by Sultan Mohammed III.
The signing of the Geneva Conventions in 1949. A country’s signature, through plenipotentiaries with "full power" to conclude a treaty, is often sufficient to manifest an intention to be bound by the treaty.
The International Court of Justice is often called upon to aid in the interpretation or implementation of treaties.
A treaty delegation of the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute indigenous tribes to Washington, D.C. (1858).

A treaty typically begins with a preamble describing the "High Contracting Parties" and their shared objectives in executing the treaty, as well as summarizing any underlying events (such as the aftermath of a war in the case of a peace treaty).

Kellogg–Briand Pact with signatures

Kellogg–Briand Pact

Kellogg–Briand Pact with signatures
Mockery of the Pact during the Paris Carnaval in 1929
French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand speaking
German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann signing
Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs Mackenzie King signing

The Kellogg–Briand Pact or Pact of Paris – officially the General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy – is a 1928 international agreement on peace in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them".

Statue of Ramesses II, the ‘Younger Memnon’. From the Ramesseum, Thebes, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, about 1250 BC. British Museum, London.

Ramesses II

The third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt.

The third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt.

Statue of Ramesses II, the ‘Younger Memnon’. From the Ramesseum, Thebes, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, about 1250 BC. British Museum, London.
Ramesses II as a child (Cairo Museum)
African prisoners in the temple Abu Simbel
A relief of Ramses II from Memphis showing him capturing enemies: a Nubian, a Libyan and a Syrian, circa 1250 BC. Cairo Museum.
Color reproduction of the relief depicting Ramesses II storming the Hittite fortress of Dapur
West Asiatic prisoners of Ramses II at Abu Simbel.
Tablet of treaty between Ḫattušili III of Hatti and Ramesses II of Egypt, at the İstanbul Archaeology Museums
Kolosstatue Ramses II Memphis
Part of Gerf Hussein temple, originally in Nubia
Image: 800 pixels
Ramesses II with Amun and Mut, Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
Colossal Statue of Ramses II in the first peristyle court at Luxor
The Younger Memnon: part of colossal statue of Ramesses from Ramesseum, now in British Museum
Scattered remains displayed in front of Osirid statues
Facade of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel
Mummy of Ramesses II, now in Cairo Museum
The mummy of Ramesses the Great
Tomb wall depicting Nefertari

The ensuing document is the earliest known peace treaty in world history.