How wars ended
Peace was negotiated, not found
Wars rarely end by themselves. They end when people sit down together and agree on rules meant to hold afterwards
All settlements at a glance
| Settlement | Period | Place | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Peace of Augsburg | February to September 1555 | Augsburg | An imperial law of 25 September 1555 recognising the Confessio Augustana alongside the old church |
| The Peace of Westphalia | 1644 to 1648 | Münster and Osnabrück | Two peace instruments of 24 October 1648, the Instrumentum Pacis Osnabrugense and the Instrumentum Pacis Monasteriense |
| The Peace of Tilsit | July 1807 | Tilsit on the Memel | Two treaties, with Russia on 7 and with Prussia on 9 July 1807, taking about half of Prussian territory |
| The Congress of Vienna | October 1814 to June 1815 | Vienna | A reordering of the continent and the German Confederation, set down in the Final Act of 8 June 1815 |
| The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk | December 1917 to November 1918 | Brest-Litovsk, today Brest | A separate peace of 3 March 1918, made void by the armistice of 11 November 1918 |
| The Treaty of Versailles | January 1919 to January 1920 | Paris and Versailles | A treaty of 440 articles, signed 28 June 1919, in force from 10 January 1920, with the Covenant of the League of Nations as its Part I |
| The Camp David Accords | September 1978 to March 1979 | Camp David, Maryland, and Washington | Two frameworks of 17 September 1978, out of which came the peace treaty of 26 March 1979 |
| The Dayton Agreement | November to December 1995 | Dayton, Ohio, and Paris | A framework agreement with eleven annexes, initialled on 21 November 1995 and signed on 14 December 1995 in Paris |
| The Good Friday Agreement | June 1996 to May 1998 | Belfast | An agreement of 10 April 1998, confirmed by referendums in Northern Ireland and in Ireland on 22 May 1998 |
This series works through peace settlements that changed Europe and the world. Each one follows the same five questions: what it was, who negotiated, what was agreed, how long it held and what there is to learn from it.
The settlements
February to September 1555
The Peace of Augsburg
When the dispute over faith could not be decided, the parties agreed to stop fighting it out. That makeshift held for more than sixty years
Read1644 to 1648
The Peace of Westphalia
Envoys negotiated in two cities for five years while the war went on. What came out of it is still treated as a model for talks between enemies
ReadJuly 1807
The Peace of Tilsit
Prussia lost half its state and kept its existence only because a third party at the table wanted it kept
ReadOctober 1814 to June 1815
The Congress of Vienna
After more than twenty years of war, the European powers negotiated a new order in Vienna. What came out of it held longer than anything before it
ReadDecember 1917 to November 1918
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
In March 1918 the war on the eastern front ended with a treaty dictated by one side. Eight months later it was void
ReadJanuary 1919 to January 1920
The Treaty of Versailles
On 28 June 1919 the parties signed a treaty in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles that only one side had drafted. How long it could hold was decided by that
ReadSeptember 1978 to March 1979
The Camp David Accords
Thirteen days without an audience, a mediator who would not let the parties leave, and at the end the first peace between Israel and an Arab state
ReadNovember to December 1995
The Dayton Agreement
Three weeks sealed off on an air force base, and at the end not merely a ceasefire but the constitution of a state
ReadJune 1996 to May 1998
The Good Friday Agreement
After three decades of violence, two governments and eight parties agreed on an order that the public then voted on
Read
From history to a mission of your own
Every one of these treaties was the work of people who thought it could be done. The same stance is what it takes on a small scale: in a neighbourhood, a school, a club.
Find your peace mission