In which city was the Treaty of Ghent signed?

The Treaty of Ghent was signed in Ghent, a city that was then part of the Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands and is now in Belgium. The agreement formally ended the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom.

American and British diplomats negotiated in Ghent during 1814, after years of fighting on land and at sea. The treaty was signed on December 24, 1814, and largely restored the borders and conditions that existed before the war. It did not award major new territory to either side, making the settlement a return to the status quo ante bellum.

The treaty created an important timing oddity. News traveled slowly across the Atlantic, so the Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815—after the treaty had been signed but before the agreement had taken effect in North America. The United States ratified it in February 1815.

Ghent is sometimes confused with London or Paris because both countries’ governments were based there, but the peace negotiations themselves took place in Ghent.