Demilitarisation or demilitarization is the reduction of a nation's army, weapons, or military vehicles to an agreed minimum. Demilitarisation is usually the result of a peace treaty ending a war or a major conflict.

Demilitarisation was a policy in a number of countries after both world wars. After the First World War the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 greatly reduced its military strength. This caused the country to be in a position of weakness during the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany and led to the policy of appeasement

Appeasement

The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...

.

Other factors also contributed to the development of appeasement, such as the personalities of U.K. leaders and the ideals they held, as well as the desire not to repeat the horrors of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

It can be the demilitarisation of a corps that from a military or paramilitary force becomes a civilian one. For example the Italian Police demilitarised in 1981, or the Austrian Gendarmerie merged with the national police making up a new civilian body.

Demilitarisation can also refer to the policies employed by the Allied forces occupying Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The Japanese and German militaries were re-badged to disassociate them from their recent war history, but were kept active and reinforced to help the allies face the new Soviet threat that had become evident as World War 2 ended, and the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 began.

Demilitarisation can also refer to the reduction of one or more types of weapons or weapons systems. See Arms Control

Arms control

Arms control is an umbrella term for restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation, and usage of weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction...

It can also refer to the demilitarisation of a specific area, such as a buffer zone between nations previously engaged in armed conflict, see demilitarised zone.

Examples of demilitarisation include:

• The Treaty of Versailles
  Treaty of Versailles
  The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
  
   barred post–World War I Germany from having an air force, armoured vehicles, and certain types of naval vessels. In addition, it established a demilitarised zone in the Rhineland
  Rhineland
  Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
  
  .
• The massive reductions of military personnel in the Allied countries, following World War I.
• The Washington Naval Treaty
  Washington Naval Treaty
  The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was an attempt to cap and limit, and "prevent 'further' costly escalation" of the naval arms race that had begun after World War I between various International powers, each of which had significant naval fleets. The treaty was...
  
  
• The demilitarisation of life in post–World War II Japan and Germany.
• The Chemical Weapons Convention
  Chemical Weapons Convention
  The Chemical Weapons Convention is an arms control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. Its full name is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction...