50 Interesting Facts about Treaties & Agreements

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26Treaty of Fort Laramie

Treaty of Fort Laramie

From Nov 1969 to Jun 1971, a Native American group occupied and held Alcatraz Island, claiming that, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie between the U.S. and the Lakota tribe, all retired, abandoned, or out-of-use federal land was to be returned to the Indians who once occupied it.


27. During World War 2, due to the Japan-Soviet neutrality pact, US aid to the Soviet port of Vladivostok (the Pacific Route) was carried by Soviet-Flagged ships only and was mostly left alone by the Japanese military. It thus became the safest path for military aid from the USA to the USSR.


28. After Soviet Russia signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany in 1939, USSR invaded and annexed Poland. Under the “secret protocol” of this pact, Poland was divided into "spheres of influence" between these two powers. USSR claimed they invaded Poland to protect the Ukrainians and Belarusians who lived in the eastern part of Poland.


29. The Article 6 under the ‘Treaty of Canandaigua’ signed between the USA and the Iroquois in 1794 requires the USA to provide $4500 in goods every year to them. It is honored to this day, but Article 2 under this treaty which was laid to protect the land of the Oneida was mostly ignored and their land fell from 6,000,000 acres to just 32 acres in 1920.


30. The ‘Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia’ refers to the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 by the four signatories of Warsaw Pact who were USSR, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary. During the invasion, Czech citizens removed or defaced all street signs except for those giving the direction back to Moscow.


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31Anglo-Portuguese Treaty

Anglo-Portuguese Treaty

In 1943, Winston Churchill called upon the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 to allow the English Navy to lease ports in neutral Portugal. This gave England access to the Azores Islands and helped change the Battle of the Atlantic.


32. America's oldest, unbroken treaty relationship is with Morocco, which was the first nation to recognize the US. The Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship was signed by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Sultan Muhammad III in 1786.


33. Aug 23, 1989 commemorated the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Hitler and Stalin, which had paved the way for the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States. On this day, 2 million people (25% of the population) formed a chain across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania seeking independence from USSR. Within 6 months, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence.


34. Mahatama Gandhi modeled his Dandi march from the Boston tea party. He always quoted the American struggle for independence in his speeches. He even flavored his tea with salt, while signing Gandhi Irwin Pact to commemorate the influence of the Boston Tea Party in his satyagraha.


35. The Anglo-American Loan Agreement was a post World War 2 loan given to the UK by the United States and Canada to keep the British economy afloat. The loan was for $3.75 billion at a low 2% interest rate and Canada loaned an additional US$1.19 billion. It was only fully paid off on December 29, 2006.


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36Republic Of Cospaia

Republic Of Cospaia

In 1440, a land sale treaty between the Pope and Florence accidentally left out a small strip of land around Cospaia. The people of the area promptly declared their independence and remained sovereign for nearly 400 years.


37. The Treaty of Amritsar was executed by the British East India Company and Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu in 1846 after the First Anglo-Sikh War. This treaty established the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 10 of the treaty required the Maharaja to send three pairs of Kashmiri shawls to be given to Queen Victoria.


38. The 1928 Pact of Paris is an international agreement that outlawed war. The period after its signing saw a significant decline in conflicts around the globe, though it didn't stop World War 2.


39. Some people have argued that USA legally holds sovereignty over Taiwan due to the Treaty of San Francisco, which was signed at the end of World War II. In 2006, a group of Taiwanese residents unsuccessfully filed a complaint asking for Taiwanese residents to receive US Constitutional rights for this reason.


40. United States leases the land beneath the Guantanamo Bay detention facility from Cuba for $4,085 per year. The agreement was made after the Spanish-American War. Since taking power in 1959, the Cuban communist government has consistently protested against the U.S. presence on Cuban soil and refuses to cash the checks sent by USA.


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41Treaty of Canandaigua

Treaty of Canandaigua

The Bureau of Indian Affairs still sends bolts of cloth every year to New York Indian tribes as part of the debt owed from the Treaty of Canandaigua of 1794.


42. Florida has an agreement with Canada which allows Canadians to pay in-state tuition rather than out-of-state tuition for all 40 state-funded colleges and universities.


43. In 1939, Turkey signed a Mutual Aid Pact with the United Kingdom and France but backed out at the last minute to avoid war with the USSR. They later signed a friendship treaty with Nazi Germany in 1941.


44. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which would end the Mexican-American War, was the result of insubordination. President Polk had ordered Nicholas Trist of the State Department to terminate negotiations. Trist disobeyed, believing a breakthrough was imminent. Polk had no choice but to accept.


45. According to Treaty Of Tripoli which was signed in 1796, the United States government "is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion, as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Muslims."


46Mutual Defense Agreement

Mutual Defense Agreement

NATO’s Mutual Defense Agreement only applies to territory in North America, Europe, and islands above the tropics. Technically, Hawaii falls outside of these requirements, and, if attacked, would not immediately activate the mutual defense clause.


47. The Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires were once so powerful that in 1494 they signed the Treaty of Tordesillas which divided the newly discovered lands outside of Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 1100 miles west of the Cape Verde islands. The border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea was indirectly set by this treaty.


48. The Baghdad Pact was a NATO-type alliance between the UK, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan until 1979.


49. The US and Canada signed the Niagara Treaty in 1950 to "preserve the scenic beauty" of Niagara Falls.


50. During the 2019 Mozambique peace-accord signings, Sid Meier's Civilization IV's theme song, Baba Yetu, was played in the background.

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