Capitulation, a treaty consisting of several specified conditions (Lat. capitula, 'heads'). In the military sense of the word, a capitulation is a treaty of surrender to an enemy. When a place can no longer be defended, on account of failure of ammunition or provisions, or the progress made by the besieging party, a white flag is commonly hoisted as a sign that the besieged are willing to capitulate. According to the kind and degree of peril in which the fortress is placed, so are the terms which the governor may reasonably look for from his successful opponent. Sometimes the arms and military stores are left to the besieged, but oftener they are taken by the besiegers, except articles of private property belonging to the officers and men. The 'honours of war,' the marching out with drums beating and colours flying, are usually stipulated for, unless the conqueror exacts very severe terms. The mildest form of a capitulation is a convention, agreed to when the conqueror is not strong enough to insist on stringent conditions. The capitulation of Metz (q.v.) on 27th October 1870 was the most notable of recent times.
Capitulation is also the name given to an arrangement by which foreigners receive certain immuni- ties in the state within which they reside; thus the grant made in the 17th century by the Porte to France is so called, as is also the right of foreigners in Egypt and Japan to be subject to their own consular jurisdictions, and exempted from the native jurisdictions.