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An armistice is the effective end of a war, when the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is derived from the Latin arma, meaning weapons and statium, meaning a stopping.

A truce or ceasefire usually refers to a temporary cessation of hostilities for an agreed limited time or within a limited area. A truce may be needed in order to negotiate an armistice. An armistice is a modus vivendi and is not the same as a peace treaty, which may take months or even years to agree on. The 1953 Korean War armistice ^[1] is a major example of an armistice which has not yet been followed by a peace treaty.

The United Nations Security Council often imposes or tries to impose cease-fire resolutions on parties in modern conflicts. Armistices are always negotiated between the parties themselves and are thus generally seen as more binding than non-mandatory UN cease-fire resolutions in modern international law.^{[citation needed]}

The most notable armistice, and the one which is still meant when people say simply "The Armistice", is the armistice at the end of World War I, on November 11, 1918, signed near Compiègne, France and effective at the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month." ^[2] Armistice Day is still celebrated in some places on the anniversary of that armistice; alternatively November 11, or a Sunday near to it, may still be observed as a Remembrance Day.^[3]

• Armistice of Copenhagen of 1537 ended the Danish war known as the Count's Feud.

• Armistice of Stuhmsdorf of 1635 between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden.

• Peace of Westphalia of 1648 that ended the Thirty Years' War.

• World War I
  • Armistice between Russia and the Central Powers, at Brest-Litovsk , 1917. See Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
  • Armistice with Bulgaria 1918
  • Armistice with Germany (Compiègne) 1918
  • Austrian-Italian Armistice of Villa Giusti ended the First World War on the Italian front in early November 1918.
  • Armistice of Mudros Between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies, 1918

• Armistice of Mudanya between Turkey, Italy, France and Britain and later Greece of 1922.

• World War II
  • Armistice with France (Second Compiègne) of 1940
  • Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre of 1941 between British forces in the Middle East and Vichy France forces in Syria
  • Armistice with Italy of 1943
  • Moscow Armistice , signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on September 19, 1944 ending the Continuation War.
  • (Germany implemented an unconditional surrender at the end of the war, immediately prior to V-E day)
  • Japanese Instrument of Surrender

• 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.^[4]

• Korean War
  • Korean War Armistice July 1953

• 1962 armistice in Algeria attempted to end the Algerian War of Independence

1. ^ Text of the Korean War Armistice Agreement. FindLaw (July 27, 1953). Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
2. ^ The Armistice. The War to End All Wars. FirstWorldWar.com (1 May 2004). Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
3. ^ What is Remembrance Day?. CBBC Newsround. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
4. ^ 1949 Armistice. Middle East, Land of Conflict. CNN. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.

• Allied Armistice Terms, 11 November 1918. The War to End All Wars. FirstWorldWar.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.