Suing for peace is an act by a warring party to initiate a peace process.

Rationales

"Suing for", in this older sense of the phrase, means "pleading or petitioning for". Suing for peace is usually initiated by the losing party in an attempt to stave off an

unconditional surrender An unconditional surrender is a surrender Surrender may refer to: * Surrender (law)In common law, surrender is the term describing a situation where a leasehold estate, tenant gives up possession of property held under a tenancy as a result of whi ...

. The nation holding the upper hand may find, in the losing party’s offer of making peace, an opportunity for relief from the necessity of having to continue to wage a costly war. Therefore, in this usage, the verb "to sue" means "to ask" or "to seek" rather than "to take legal action against". Pressing for peace may sometimes, however, be started by the winning faction as a means to end the war for several reasons, such as if additional conflict would not be in the perceived best interest of the winning party. In that case, demands might be made, or both nations may agree to a "white peace", which is a return to the

status quo ante bellum The term ''status quo ante bellum'' is a Latin phrase meaning "the situation as it existed before the war". The term was originally used in treaty, treaties to refer to the withdrawal of enemy troops and the restoration of prewar leadership. Wh ...

(the prewar situation).

Examples

The

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between the Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty, officially the Great Qing (), was the last Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty in the History of China#Imperi ...

(1 August 1894 – 17 April 1895) was fought between the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty, officially the Great Qing (), was the last Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty in the History of China#Imperial China, imperial history of China. It was established in 1636, and ruled China proper from 1644 to 1912, w ...

of China and the

Empire of Japan The was a historical and that existed from the in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II and subsequent formation of modern . It encompassed the and several , s, , and other . Under the slogans of and Japan underwent ...

, primarily over influence of

Korea Korea (officially the "Korean Peninsula") is a region in East Asia. Since 1945 it has been Division of Korea, divided into the two parts which soon became the two sovereign states: North Korea (officially the "Democratic People's Republic of ...

Korea

. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the Chinese port of

Weihai Weihai (), formerly called Weihaiwei (), is a prefecture-level city Image:Yangxin-renmin-huanyin-ni-0022.jpg, A road sign shows distance to the "Huangshi urban area" () rather than simply "Huangshi" (). This is a useful distinction, because the si ...

Weihai

wei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895. The archives abound with attempts to halt World War I, but most attempts were unofficial and of no effect. On 2 December 1916, prior to his coronation later that month,

Charles I of Austria Charles I or Karl I (''Karl Franz Joseph Ludwig Hubert Georg Otto Maria''; 17 August 18871 April 1922) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary (as Charles IV, ), King of Croatia, King of Bohemia (as Charles III, ), and the last of the monar ...

took over the title of Supreme Commander of the army from Archduke Frederick. In 1917, he secretly entered into peace negotiations with France. He employed his brother-in-law,

Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma

, an officer in the Belgian Army, as intermediary. The negotiations of the Sixtus Affair for a sued peace failed.

References

{{War navbox Diplomacy Aftermath of war

Rationales

Examples

See also

References