Debellatio (also debellation) (lat.: "Defeating, or the act of conquering or subduing") designates the end of a war caused by complete destruction of a hostile state. A state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern a society, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ...

The Unconditional surrender of the Third Reich at the end of World War II has been cited as a case of Debellatio ^[1][2][3]. In other cases debellation ends with a complete dissolution and annexation of the defeated state into the victor's national territory, as happened at the end of the Third Punic War with the defeat of Carthage by Rome in the second century BC^[4]. Unconditional surrender refers to a surrender without conditions, except for those provided by international law. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... Combatants Roman Republic Carthage Commanders Scipio Aemilianus Hasdrubal the Boetarch Strength 40,000 90,000 Casualties 17,000 62,000 The Third Punic War (149 to 146 BC) was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between the former Phoenician colony of Carthage, and the Roman Republic. ... Dionysius Exiguus invented Anno Domini years to date Easter. ...

See also

• Laws of war
• Total war

The two parts of the laws of war: Law concerning acceptable practices while engaged in war, like the Geneva Conventions, is called Jus in bello; while law concerning allowable justifications for armed force is called Jus ad bellum. ... This article is about the military doctrine of total war. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ ICRC Commentaries on the Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War Article 5 "The German capitulation was both political, involving the dissolution of the Government, and military, whereas the Japanese capitulation was only military".
2. ^ The human rights dimensions of population (Page 2, paragraph 138) UNHCR web site
3. ^ Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1993 Volume II Part Two Page 54, paragraph 295 (last paragraph on the page)
4. ^ 2004 Scripps National Spelling Bee Consolidated Word List Page 8