Separate peace
A special or separate peace is usually a peace agreement between a nation at war with a previously hostile nation, in which the allies of one of the nations are not consulted or even included in the peace.
This means either that a nation leaves a previous alliance and the war completely, or that this nation even changes sides.
For the nation that is leaving the war, this can have the advantage of being able to end the war, which was believed to be lost, on moderate terms. Another trigger can be an internal upheaval in the nation. The opponents of this nation will generally accept the separate peace if it can shorten the war and the leaving nation is not their main enemy.
Examples
Well-known examples of a separate peace or attempts to conclude one:
Seven Years War
In 1762 Russia concludes a separate peace with Prussia in the Seven Years' War , which was also at war with Austria, France and Bavaria.
Napoleonic Wars
In Napoleon's so-called coalition wars from 1795 to 1815, peace was repeatedly concluded between France and individual other nations through diplomacy . However, these often only lasted a few months or years before the war resumed.
First World War
- The peace of Brest-Litovsk in 1918 between Russia and the Central Powers of the First World War . Russia withdrew from the war.
- The Peace of Bucharest (1918) between Romania and the Central Powers, after which the country temporarily withdrew from the war.
- The Berlin Treaty (1921) of August 25, 1921 between the United States and Germany.
Second World War
- The peace with Great Britain, which Hitler wanted in 1940/41 after his victories in Poland and France, did not materialize. In order to achieve this, the previous peace with France was designed rather moderately ( Alsace-Lorraine was not annexed, France was allowed to found the (albeit dependent) Vichy Republic and keep its colonies ). England refused, however.
- The separate peace with the Western powers, also desired by Hitler (1944/45) after their liberation of Western Europe, with the pretext that Hitler wanted to stop communist expansion in Eastern Europe ("a danger for all of Europe").
- The separate peace of the Soviet Union with various allies of the Axis powers such as Romania and Hungary in 1945.
- The Allied peace with Italy after the fall of Mussolini . This left Germany without a major allied power in Europe (only Japan remained). A little later, Italy even declared war on the German Reich after the Allies promised Italy a very mild peace. After the war, however, Italy lost most of Istria and its colonies in Albania , Libya and East Africa ( Eritrea , Somalia and Ethiopia ).
