Status quo ante bellum is aLatin phrase meaning 'the situation as it existed before the war'.[1]The term was originally used intreaties to refer to the withdrawal of enemy troops and the restoration of prewar leadership. When used as such, it means that no side gains or loses any territorial, economic, or political rights. This contrasts withuti possidetis, where each side retains whatever territory and other property it holds at the end of the war.
An early example is the treaty that ended theByzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 between theEastern Roman and theSasanian Persian Empires. The Persians had occupiedAsia Minor,Palestine andEgypt. After a successful Roman counteroffensive inMesopotamia finally ended the war, the integrity of Rome's eastern frontier as it was prior to 602 was fully restored. Both empires were exhausted after this war, and neither was ready to defend itself when thearmies of Islam emerged fromArabia in 632.
Another example is the sixteenth-centuryAbyssinian–Adal war between the MuslimAdal Sultanate and ChristianEthiopian Empire, which ended in a stalemate. Both empires were exhausted after this war, and neither was ready to defend itself against theOromo Migrations.[2]
TheWar of 1812 was fought between theUnited States and theUnited Kingdom, which was concluded with theTreaty of Ghent in 1814.[3] During negotiations, British diplomats had suggested ending the waruti possidetis.[4] While American diplomats demanded cession fromCanada and British officials also pressed for a pro-BritishIndian barrier state in theMidwest and keeping parts of Maine they captured (i.e.,New Ireland) during the war,[5][6] the final treaty left neither gains nor losses in land for the United States or the United Kingdom's Canadian colonies.
TheFootball War, also known as the Soccer War or 100 Hour War, was a brief war fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. It ended in a ceasefire andstatus quo ante bellum due to intervention by theOrganization of American States.
TheIndo-Pakistani War of 1965 was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan'sOperation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate forces intoJammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against Indian rule. This war concluded in a stalemate with no permanent territorial changes (seeTashkent Declaration).[7]
TheIran–Iraq War lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. "The war left the borders unchanged. Three years later, as war with the Western powers loomed,Saddam Hussein recognized Iranian rights over the eastern half of theShatt al-Arab, a reversion to thestatus quo ante bellum that he had repudiated a decade earlier."[attribution needed] In exchange, Iran gave a promise not to invade Iraq while the latter was busy inKuwait.
TheKargil War was an armed conflict between India andPakistan that took place in 1999 between 3 May and 26 July of theKargil district inJammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along theLine of Control (LoC). The war started with the infiltration of Pakistani soldiers and armed insurgents into positions on the Indian side of the LoC. After two months of fighting, the Indian military regained most of its positions on the Indian side, and the Pakistani forces withdrew to their peacetime positions. The war ended with no territorial changes on either side.[8]
