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 treaties 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 territory or economic and political rights. This contrasts with uti possidetis, where each side retains whatever territory and other property it holds at the end of the war. The term has been generalized to form the phrases status quo and status quo ante. Outside this context, the term is, in the United States, usually associated with the period before the American Civil War, while in Europe and elsewhere with the period before World War I.
Historical examples
An early example is the treaty that ended the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 between the Eastern Roman and the Sasanian Persian Empires. The Persians had occupied Asia Minor, Palestine and Egypt. After a successful Roman counteroffensive in Mesopotamia finally brought about the end of 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 the armies of Islam emerged from Arabia in 632. Another example is the sixteenth-century Abyssinian–Adal war between the Muslim Adal Sultanate and Christian Ethiopian Empire which ended in a stalemate. Both empires were exhausted after this war, and neither was ready to defend itself against the pagan Oromo Migrations.
The Seven Years' War between Prussia and Austria lasted from 1756 to 1763 and concluded in status quo ante bellum. Austria tried to regain the region of Silesia, lost in the War of the Austrian Succession eight years previously, but the territory remained in the hands of the Prussians.
Another example of a war that ended status quo ante bellum is the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom, which was concluded with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. During negotiations, British diplomats had suggested ending the war uti possidetis. While American diplomats also demanded cession from Canada, the final treaty, due in large part to pressure from the British government to secure peace early, left neither gains nor losses in land for the United States or the United Kingdom'sCanadian colonies.
The Korean DMZ Conflict, also referred to as the Second Korean War by some, was a series of low-level armed clashes between North Korean forces and the forces of South Korea and the United States, largely occurring between 1966 and 1969 at the Korean DMZ.
The Iran–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 the Shatt al-Arab, a reversion to the status quo ante bellum that he had repudiated a decade earlier." In exchange Iran gave a promise not to attempt any invasion of Iraq while the latter was busy in Kuwait.
The Kargil War was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place in 1999 between 3 May and 26 July of the Kargil district in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control. 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 the majority of the positions on the Indian side, and the Pakistani forces withdrew to their peacetime positions. The war ended with no territorial changes on either side.
