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There are different claims of wars extended by diplomatic irregularity which involve long peaceful periods after the end of hostilities where, for various reasons, the belligerents could be considered to be in a technical state of war. For example, occasionally small countries named in a declaration of war would accidentally be omitted from a peace treaty ending the wider conflict.
Such "extended wars" are discovered much after the fact, and have no impact during the long period (often hundreds of years) after the actual fighting ended. The discovery of an "extended war" is sometimes an opportunity for a friendly ceremonial peace to be contracted by the belligerent parties. Such peace ceremonies are even conducted after ancient wars where no peace treaty was expected in the first place, and in cases where the countries were not even at war at all, such as the case of Berwick-upon-Tweed and Russia. These "treaties" often involve non-sovereign sub-national entities, such as cities, who do not in reality have the power to declare or end wars.
Related situations (not necessarily listed below) include:
Combatants | Historical conflict | Declaration of war | De facto peace | De jure peace | De facto duration | De jure duration | De facto – de jure difference | Status of claim |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Isles of Scilly vs Dutch Republic | First Anglo-Dutch War (Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War) | 1651 | 1654 | 1986 | 4 | 335 | 329 | The Dutch Republic under Michiel de Ruyter declared war solely on the Isles of Scilly, as the final stronghold of the Royalist naval force which was capturing Dutch merchant ships. When the Dutch and the Commonwealth of England signed the Treaty of Westminster (1654), this separate state of war was not mentioned and thus not included in the peace. The Dutch ambassador, visiting in April 1986 to conclude peace, joked that it must have been harrowing to the Scillonians "to know we could have attacked at any moment." [1] |
Huéscar vs Denmark | Peninsular War | 1809 | 1814 | 1981 | 6 | 172 | 167 | The Spanish town of Huéscar declared war on Denmark, as a result of the Napoleonic wars over Spain, where Denmark supported the French Empire. The official declaration of war was forgotten until it was discovered by a local historian in 1981, followed by the signing of a peace treaty on 11 November 1981 by the city mayor and the Ambassador of Denmark. Not a single shot was fired during the 172 years of war, and nobody was killed or injured. [2] [3] [4] |
Montenegro vs Japan | Russo-Japanese War | 1904 | 1905 | 2006 | 2 | 102 | 101 | Montenegro declared war in support of Russia but Montenegro lacked a navy or any other means to engage Japan. After Montenegro (independent in 1904, but united with Serbia by 1918) had voted in 2006 to resume its independence, it concluded a separate peace treaty in order to establish diplomatic relations with Japan. [5] [6] See Japan–Montenegro relations. |
Costa Rica vs Germany | World War I | 1918 | 1918 | 1945 | 1 | 28 | 27 | Due to a dispute over the legitimacy of the government of Federico Tinoco Granados, Costa Rica was not a party to the Treaty of Versailles and did not unilaterally end the state of war. [7] The technical state of war ended after World War II only after they were included in the Potsdam Agreement. Costa Rica did not issue a declaration of war against Germany in World War II. [8] |
Soviet Union vs Japan | Soviet–Japanese War (Part of World War II) | 1945 | 1945 | 1956 | 1 | 11 | 10 | The Soviet–Japanese War was a short conflict that lasted less than a month in 1945. However, despite this, the Soviets refused to sign the Treaty of San Francisco and did not unilaterally end the state of war. Ultimately, the state of war was not formally ended until the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, [9] 11 years later. |
Poland vs Japan | World War II | 1941 | 1945 | 1957 | 4 | 16 | 12 | In December, 1941, the Polish government-in-exile declared war on Japan, but Japan rejected declaration of War. However, when it came to sign the Treaty of San Francisco, Poland, which was under Soviet occupation, did not sign the Treaty of San Francisco and did not unilaterally end the state of war. Ultimately, the state of war was not formally ended until 1957, when Japan concluded a separate peace treaty in order to establish diplomatic relations with the Polish People's Republic. [lower-alpha 1] [10] [11] |
UN Forces (led by United States) vs Iraq | Gulf War | 1991 | 1991 | 2003 | 1 | 13 | 12 | The UN resolution which ended the first Gulf War only enacted a ceasefire. It did not end the state of war with Iraq. [12] The British Government would, 12 years later, use the de jure state of war with Iraq to provide the legal basis for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [13] Opponents of the Iraq War have criticised this interpretation, with one source labelling it as "legal gymnastics" (see Legality of the Iraq War). [14] [15] [16] |
Combatants | Historical conflict | Declaration of war | De facto peace | De jure peace | De facto duration | De jure duration | De facto – de jure difference | Status of claim |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
United States vs Germany | World War II | 1941 | 1945 | 1951 | 4 | 10 | 6 | The state of war between the United States and Germany was terminated on 19 October 1951. [17] |
The Allies vs Germany | World War II | 1939 | 1945 | 1990 | 6 | 51 | 45 | Since Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, no formal peace agreement was signed, therefore meaning that no unified German government was able to make peace with the Allies until the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was signed by the Allies. |
Combatants | Historical conflict | Declaration of war | De facto peace | De jure peace | De facto duration | De jure duration | De facto - de jure difference | Status of claim |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Greece vs Persia | Greco-Persian Wars | 499 BC | 449 BC | 1902 | 50 | 2403 | 2353 | Greece and Persia may or may not have formed a peace treaty in antiquity but if they did neither nation knew of it when Greece re-appeared on the map. [18] |
Rome vs Carthage | Third Punic War | 149 BC | 146 BC | 1985 | 4 | 2134 | 2130 | Ancient Rome and Ancient Carthage never signed a peace treaty after the Romans seized and completely destroyed the city of Carthage in 146 BC and enslaved its entire surviving population, leaving no entity with which to make peace. In 1985 the mayors of modern Rome and Carthage municipality signed a peace treaty and accompanying pact of friendship. [19] |
Sparta vs Athens | Peloponnesian War | 431 BC | 404 BC | 1996 | 28 | 2427 | 2399 | The mayors of modern-day Athens and Sparta signed a symbolic agreement to end the war in 1996. [20] [21] By then, the two cities had been part of modern-day Greece for over a century. |
Berwick-upon-Tweed vs Russia | Crimean War | 1853 | 1856 | 1966 | 4 | 114 | 110 | Local custom in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed states that when the United Kingdom declared war on the Russian Empire that the town was included in the declaration of war, but was left out of the peace treaty. Although research concluded that they had never been included in either, [22] a peace treaty was nonetheless allegedly signed between Robert Knox and an unnamed Soviet official. [23] However, Jim Herbert of the Berwick Borough Museum said in 2006 that contemporary newspaper reports did not confirm that a treaty had been signed, nor could Knox's remark to the Soviet official who was said to have attended the signing, "Tell the Russians they can sleep easy in their beds", be verified. [23] |
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers, by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, which followed months of negotiations after the armistice on the Eastern Front in December 1917, was signed at Brest-Litovsk.
The diplomatic history of the United States oscillated among three positions: isolation from diplomatic entanglements of other nations ; alliances with European and other military partners; and unilateralism, or operating on its own sovereign policy decisions. The US always was large in terms of area, but its population was small, only 4 million in 1790. Population growth was rapid, reaching 7.2 million in 1810, 32 million in 1860, 76 million in 1900, 132 million in 1940, and 316 million in 2013. Economic growth in terms of overall GDP was even faster. However, the nation's military strength was quite limited in peacetime before 1940.
The Treaty of San Francisco, also called the Treaty of Peace with Japan, re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It was signed by 49 nations on 8 September 1951, in San Francisco, California, at the War Memorial Opera House. Italy and China were not invited, the latter due to disagreements on whether the Republic of China or the People's Republic of China represented the Chinese people. Korea was also not invited due to a similar disagreement on whether South Korea or North Korea represented the Korean people.
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one state announces existing or impending war activity against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government, in order to create a state of war between two or more states.
The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch between the Japanese island of Hokkaido at their southern end and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula at their northern end. The islands separate the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. The four disputed islands, like other islands in the Kuril chain which are not in dispute, were unilaterally annexed by the Soviet Union following the Kuril Islands landing operation at the end of World War II. The disputed islands are under Russian administration as the South Kuril District and part of the Kuril District of the Sakhalin Oblast. They are claimed by Japan, which refers to them as its Northern Territories or Southern Chishima, and considers them part of the Nemuro Subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture.
The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire was signed on 7 May 1875, and its ratifications exchanged at Tokyo on 22 August 1875. The treaty itself went into effect in 1877.
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surrender, in which an army agrees to give up arms; or a ceasefire or truce, in which the parties may agree to temporarily or permanently stop fighting.
War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, industrial assets, or intellectual properties. Loss of territory in a peace settlement is usually considered distinct from war reparations. Compare booty and plunder.
A war of aggression, sometimes also war of conquest, is a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense, usually for territorial gain and subjugation.
This timeline of events preceding World War II covers the events that affected or led to World War II.
A separate peace is a nation's agreement to cease military hostilities with another even though the former country had previously entered into a military alliance with other states that remain at war with the latter country. For example, at the start of the First World War, Russia was a member, like the United Kingdom and France, of the Triple Entente, which went to war with the Central Powers formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary, later joined by the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. After the abdication of Nicholas II during the February Revolution and the subsequent Russian Provisional Government's overthrow by the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution, Russia defaulted on its commitments to the Triple Entente by signing a separate peace with Germany and its allies in 1917. This armistice was followed on March 3, 1918, by the formal signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
The Habomai Islands are a group of uninhabited islets in the southernmost Kuril Islands. They are currently under Russian administration, but together with Iturup (Etorofu), Kunashir (Kunashiri), and Shikotan are claimed by Japan.
The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during World War II (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers. Its principal members by the end of 1941 were the "Big Four" – United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China.
The Soviet Union did not sign the Treaty of Peace with Japan in 1951. On 19 October 1956, Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Joint Declaration providing for the end of the state of war and for the restoration of diplomatic relations between both countries. They also agreed to continue negotiations for a peace treaty. In addition, the Soviet Union pledged to support Japan for UN membership and to waive all World War II reparations claims. The joint declaration was accompanied by a trade protocol, which granted reciprocal most favored nation status and provided for the development of trade. Japan derived few apparent gains from the normalization of diplomatic relations. The second half of the 1950s saw an increase in cultural exchanges.
Relations between the Soviet Unionand Japan between the Communist takeover in 1917 and the collapse of Communism in 1991 tended to be hostile. Japan had sent troops to counter the Bolshevik presence in Russia's Far East during the Russian Civil War, and both countries had been in opposite camps during World War II and the Cold War. In addition, territorial conflicts over the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin were a constant source of tension. These, with a number of smaller conflicts, prevented both countries from signing a peace treaty after World War II, and even today matters remain unresolved.
The partition of the Ottoman Empire was a geopolitical event that occurred after World War I and the occupation of Constantinople by British, French, and Italian troops in November 1918. The partitioning was planned in several agreements made by the Allied Powers early in the course of World War I, notably the Sykes–Picot Agreement, after the Ottoman Empire had joined Germany to form the Ottoman–German Alliance. The huge conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was divided into several new states. The Ottoman Empire had been the leading Islamic state in geopolitical, cultural and ideological terms. The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after the war led to the domination of the Middle East by Western powers such as Britain and France, and saw the creation of the modern Arab world and the Republic of Turkey. Resistance to the influence of these powers came from the Turkish National Movement but did not become widespread in the other post-Ottoman states until the period of rapid decolonization after World War II.
The Revolutions of 1917–1923 were a revolutionary wave that included political unrest and armed revolts around the world inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution and the disorder created by the aftermath of World War I. The uprisings were mainly socialist or anti-colonial in nature. Some socialist revolts failed to create lasting socialist states. The revolutions had lasting effects in shaping the future European political landscape, with for example the collapse of the German Empire and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. Prior to its proclamation, the Central Council of Ukraine was elected in March 1917 as a result of the February Revolution, and in June, it declared Ukrainian autonomy within Russia. Its autonomy was later recognized by the Russian Provisional Government. Following the October Revolution, the Central Council of Ukraine denounced the Bolshevik seizure of power and proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic with a territory including the area of approximately eight Russian imperial governorates. It formally declared its independence from Russia on 22 January 1918.
Japan is currently engaged in several territorial disputes with nearby countries, including Russia, South Korea, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
The Treaty of Peace between Finland and Germany, also called the Berlin Peace Treaty, signed in Berlin on 7 March 1918 ended the state of war that existed between Finland and the German Empire as a result of World War I. It paved the way for German intervention in the Finnish Civil War and the invasion of Åland.