Make Peace With This Quiz on Famous Treaties

The first known peace treaty — the Treaty of Kadesh — is believed to have been signed between Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II and Hittite King Hattusili III in 1258 BCE. The agreement ended years of conflict between the two nations and enabled a productive and mutually beneficial relationship that lasted until the fall of the Hittite Empire around 1200 BCE.

The Congress of Vienna established several treaties at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, which successfully led to the prevention of major wars occurring in Europe for the ensuing century. Though France was on the losing end and ceded the land it had acquired under Napoleon Bonaparte, the treaties ensured that France would maintain its prewar boundaries.

The Peace of Westphalia is the collective name of two treaties signed in 1648 that put an end to the Thirty Years’ War, a series of conflicts in Central Europe that began between the Protestant and Catholic states in the Holy Roman Empire (modern Germany and France). The treaties, signed by the Holy Roman Empire, Sweden, and France, established peace in the region, led to the independence of Switzerland, and cemented Protestantism as a major European religion.

On June 7, 1494, Spain and Portugal agreed to the Treaty of Tordesillas. The colonial powers drew a line of demarcation through the Atlantic Ocean, which was pushed further westward in 1506, allowing Portugal to claim the eastern coast of Brazil. As a result of the agreement, Spain colonized much of Central and South America, and the Spanish influence in the region is still seen today.

The Geneva Accords resulted from the Geneva Conference of 1954 that occurred after the Korean War. As part of the agreement, Vietnam was divided into North and South states, and elections were planned for 1956 that would reunify the country. South Vietnam ultimately withheld approval, deciding to work with the U.S. to establish an anti-communist state.

On December 24, 1814, Britain and America formally signed the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. The treaty was considered beneficial for the U.S., as its terms permitted expansion into the Great Lakes region. News of the treaty took time to arrive stateside, and it failed to prevent the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.

The Alaskan Purchase was formally signed on March 30, 1867, and was ridiculed as “Seward’s Folly” after then-Secretary of State William Seward. In the treaty, the U.S. agreed to pay $7 million to Russia for the icy landmass, equivalent to more than $140 million today. The U.S. formally took control of Alaska six months later.

Signed on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the two-year conflict between Mexico and the United States. As part of the treaty’s terms, Mexico ceded 55% of its territory to the U.S., including the modern states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of several other states. Mexico also relinquished all territorial claims to Texas.

SALT I and II were a series of agreements between the U.S. and Soviet Union meant to curtail the manufacturing of nuclear missiles. The treaties were signed in 1972 and 1979, though the concept was first proposed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. Renewed negotiations, known as Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, took place in Geneva in 1982.

The Yalta Conference was a summit held in February 1945 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin to discuss the postwar fate of Germany, as well as the terms of entry for the Soviets into the continuing Pacific conflict of World War II. During the conference, the “Big Three” leaders agreed that Germany — having surrendered — would be divided into four occupation zones.

The Camp David Accords were first discussed in September 1978, establishing the framework for a peace treaty that was signed in March 1979. The talks were brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and were signed by Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The accords established a long-standing peace between Israel and Egypt.

Though the Confederate government never officially surrendered to the Union, the American Civil War essentially ended in the wake of Robert E. Lee’s military surrender to Ulysses S. Grant. The negotiations occurred in the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, beginning on April 9, 1865. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured later that spring, and the Confederate government subsequently collapsed.

Established on January 10, 1920, in the wake of World War I, the League of Nations was essentially a predecessor to the modern United Nations. The League of Nations served as an agreement between all member states to prevent and act against aggression. Though President Woodrow Wilson and the U.S. played a key role in the league’s creation, the U.S. never formally joined.

In 1783, U.S. founding fathers Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay traveled to Europe to meet with representatives of King George III to formally end the American Revolutionary War. According to the terms of the Treaty of Paris, the British crown formally recognized American independence and ceded most of its territory east of the Mississippi River to the newly formed United States.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed during the Paris Peace Conference on June 28, 1919. The agreement’s main negotiators were U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, Great Britain’s David Lloyd George, France’s Georges Clemenceau, and Italy’s Vittorio Orlando. It resulted in assigning Germany the responsibility for causing World War I, requiring the country to pay massive damages.