A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state or dependent territory that foregoes an independent foreign policy in favour of alliance with a protecting power, normally in order to ensure its defence against regional aggressors. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its internal affairs, while still recognizing the suzerainty of a more powerful sovereign state without being a possession. In exchange, the protectorate accepts treaty obligations which bind it to the protecting power in foreign policy. Protectorates are established formally by a treaty between the powers involved. Under certain conditions—as with Egypt under British rule (1882–1914)—a state can also be labelled as a de facto protectorate or a veiled protectorate.

A protectorate is different from a colony, insofar as it retains, at least on paper, self-governance and legal identity as a separate state, is not directly possessed, and rarely experiences colonization by the suzerain state. A state that is under the protection of another state while retaining its international legal personality and some independent foreign policy is sometimes called a "protected state" as distinct from a true protectorate, which has no foreign policy of its own save its alliance with its protector; a "protected state" in this sense typically has a greater degree of independence.

History

Protectorates are one of the oldest features of international relations, dating back to classical antiquity. The Delian League, Classical Athens's empire, operated as a network of poleis, internally self-governing but surrendering their foreign policy to Athens. Likewise, the Roman Republic had an extensive network of protectorates, known as socii, which provided up to 60% of the Republic's manpower.

In the Middle Ages, Andorra was a protectorate of France and Spain. The modern understanding of protected states developed during the Napoleonic Wars, when the French Empire set up numerous protectorates across Europe, including Confederation of the Rhine, the Kingdoms of Italy, Spain, Etruria, and Holland, the Duchy of Warsaw, and puppet republics in Switzerland and (ephemerally) Ireland.

Typology

Foreign relations

In practice, a protectorate often has direct foreign relations only with the protector state, and transfers the management of all its more important international affairs to the latter. Similarly, the protectorate rarely takes military action on its own but relies on the protector for its defence. This is distinct from annexation, in that the protector has no formal power to control the internal affairs of the protectorate.

Protectorates differ from League of Nations mandates and their successors, United Nations trust territories, whose administration is supervised, in varying degrees, by the international community. A protectorate formally enters into the protection through a bilateral agreement with the protector, while international mandates are stewarded by the world community-representing body, with or without a de facto administering power.

Protected state

A protected state has a form of protection where it continues to retain an "international personality" and enjoys an agreed amount of independence in conducting its foreign policy.

For political and pragmatic reasons, the protection relationship is not usually advertised, but described with euphemisms such as "an independent state with special treaty relations" with the protecting state. A protected state appears on world maps just as any other independent state.

International administration of a state can also be regarded as an internationalized form of protection, where the protector is an international organisation rather than a state.

Colonial protection

Multiple regions—such as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, the Colony and Protectorate of Lagos, and similar—were subjects of colonial protection. Conditions of protection are generally less generous for areas of colonial protection, but were also much more flexible arrangements. However, protectorates in the modern period were often reduced to a de facto condition similar to a state colony, but with the pre-existing native state continuing as an agent of indirect rule. Occasionally, a protectorate, and indeed colonies, during this time had been established by another form of indirect rule: a chartered company, which becomes a de facto corporate trading entity in its home state (yet geographically overseas), yet allowed to be an independent political actor, with its own foreign policy, and generally its own armed forces, and enabled to participate in local politics and affairs. This had the advantage of the ability to establish a new subordinated state by private company authority, which brought little cost to the state and could then be brought under the home state's authority after such a chartered company's abolition.[citation needed]

In fact, protectorates were often declared despite no agreement being duly entered into by the state supposedly being protected, but some were agreed to by a protectorate's native institutional authority (which was often absolutist or autocratic in its headship) that was in legitimate power within those states. Protecting powers frequently decided to rearrange several protectorates into new, artificial unified states without consulting the protectorates native headship or being mindful of the theoretical duty of a protector to help maintain a protectorate's status and integrity. The Berlin agreement of 26 February 1885, allowed colonial powers of the time to establish protectorates in Sub-Saharan Africa (the last region to be divided among them) by mere diplomatic notification, even without actual possession of the territory on the ground. This aspect of history is referred to as the Scramble for Africa. A similar case is the formal use of such terms as colony and protectorate for a union—convenient only for the colonizer or protector—of adjacent territories, over which it held (de facto) regional influence by protective or "raw" power.[citation needed]

Amical protection

An amical protection—as in the UK's previous relationship with the United States of the Ionian Islands from 1815 to 1864—the terms are often very favourable for the protectorate. Frequently established in the Early-Mid Modern period, the political interest of the protector was typically a moral one (as rather a matter of culturally accepted moral obligation, prestige, ideology, internal popularity, or of dynastic, historical, or ethnocultural ties). The protector's interest could also be in countering a rival or enemy power—such as preventing the rival from obtaining or maintaining control of areas of strategic importance. This may involve a very weak protectorate surrendering control of its external affairs of state but may not have constituted any practical sacrifice, as the protectorate may not have been able to have a similar use of them without the protector's power.

The great powers frequently extended amical protection to other Christian (generally European) states, and to states of no significant importance.[ambiguous] After 1815, non-Christian states (such as the Chinese Qing dynasty) also provided amical protection to other, much weaker states.

In post-modern times, a form of amical protection can be seen as an important or defining feature of microstates. According to the definition proposed by Dumienski (2014): "microstates are modern protected states, i.e. sovereign states that have been able to unilaterally depute certain attributes of sovereignty to larger powers in exchange for benign protection of their political and economic viability against their geographic or demographic constraints".

List of protectorates

Brazil

Imperial protectorates

Republican protectorates

British Empire

List of former British protectorates

Americas

Arab world

Asia

Europe

Sub-Saharan Africa

*protectorates that existed alongside a colony of the same name

Oceania

List of former British protected states

As protected states, the following states were never officially part of the British Empire and retained near-total control over internal affairs; however, the British controlled their foreign policy. Their status was rarely advertised while it was in effect, it becoming clear only after it was lifted.

China

Dutch Empire

Various sultanates in the Dutch East Indies (present day Indonesia):

Sumatra

Riau Archipelago

Java

Bali

Lombok

Flores and Solor

  • Larantuka (1859–1904)
  • Tanah Kuna Lima (1917–1924)
  • Ndona (1917–1924)
  • Sikka (1879–c. 1947)

Borneo

Celebes

  • Gowa Sultanate (1669–1906; 1936–1949)
  • Bone Sultanate (1669–1905)
  • Bolaang Mongonduw (1825–c. 1949)
  • Laiwui (1858–c. 1949)
  • Luwu (1861–c. 1949)
  • Soppeng (1860–c. 1949)
  • Butung (1824–c. 1949)
  • Siau (1680–c. 1949)
  • Banggai (1907–c. 1949)
  • Tallo (1668–1780)
  • Wajo (1860–c. 1949)
  • Tabukan (1677–c. 1949)

Ajattappareng Confederacy (1905–c. 1949)

  • Malusetasi
  • Rapang
  • Swaito (union of Sawito and Alita, 1908)
  • Sidenreng
  • Supa

Mabbatupappeng Confederacy (1906–c. 1949)

  • Barru
  • Soppengriaja (union of Balusu, Kiru, Kamiri, 1906)
  • Tanette

Mandar Confederacy (1906–c. 1949)

Massenrempulu Confederacy (1905–c. 1949)

Moluccas

West Timor and Alor

  • Amanatun (1749–c. 1949)
  • Amanuban (1749–c. 1949)
  • Amarasi (1749–c. 1949)
  • Amfoan (1683–c. 1949)
  • Beboki (1756–c. 1949)
  • Belu (1756–c.1949)
  • Insana (1756–c.1949)
  • Sonbai Besar (1756–1906)
  • Sonbai Kecil (1659–1917)
  • Roti (Korbafo before 1928) (c. 1750–c.1949)
  • TaEbenu (1688–1917)

New Guinea

Egypt

France

Africa

"Protection" was the formal legal structure under which French colonial forces expanded in Africa between the 1830s and 1900. Almost every pre-existing state that was later part of French West Africa was placed under protectorate status at some point, although direct rule gradually replaced protectorate agreements. Formal ruling structures, or fictive recreations of them, were largely retained—as with the low-level authority figures in the French Cercles—with leaders appointed and removed by French officials.

Asia

1 Sapèque – Protectorate of Tonkin (1905)

Europe

Oceania

  • French Polynesia French Polynesia, mainly the Society Islands (several others were immediately annexed). All eventually were annexed by 1889. Tahiti (native king styled Ari`i rahi) becomes a French protectorate, 1842–1880 Raiatea and Tahaa (after temporary annexation by Tahiti; (title Ari`i) a French protectorate, 1880) Mangareva (one of the Gambier Islands; ruler title `Akariki) a French protectorate, 16 February 1844 (unratified) and 30 November 1871
  • Wallis and Futuna: Wallis declared to be a French protectorate by King of Uvea and Captain Mallet, 4 November 1842. Officially in a treaty becomes a French protectorate, 5 April 1887. Sigave and Alo on the islands of Futuna and Alofi signed a treaty establishing a French protectorate on 16 February 1888.

Germany

5000 kronen – Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939–1945)

The German Empire used the word Schutzgebiet, literally protectorate, for all of its colonial possessions until they were lost during World War I, regardless of the actual level of government control. Cases involving indirect rule included:

Before and during World War II, Nazi Germany designated the rump of occupied Czechoslovakia and Denmark as protectorates:

India

Italy

  • The Albanian Republic (1917–1920) and the Albanian Kingdom (1939–1943)
  • Monaco Monaco under amical Protectorate of the Kingdom of Sardinia 20 November 1815 to 1860.
  • Ethiopia : 2 May 1889 Treaty of Wuchale, in the Italian language version, stated that Ethiopia was to become an Italian protectorate, while the Ethiopian Amharic language version merely stated that the Emperor could, if he so chose, go through Italy to conduct foreign affairs. When the differences in the versions came to light, Emperor Menelik II abrogated first the article in question (XVII), and later the whole treaty. The event culminated in the First Italo-Ethiopian War, in which Ethiopia was victorious and defended her sovereignty in 1896.
  • Libya: on 15 October 1912 Italian protectorate declared over Cirenaica (Cyrenaica) until 17 May 1919.
  • Benadir Coast in Somalia: 3 August 1889 Italian protectorate (in the northeast; unoccupied until May 1893), until 16 March 1905 when it changed to Italian Somaliland. Majeerteen Sultanate since 7 April 1889 under Italian protectorate (renewed 7 April 1895), then in 1927 incorporated into the Italian colony. Sultanate of Hobyo since December 1888 under Italian protectorate (renewed 11 April 1895), then in October 1925 incorporated into the Italian colony (known as Obbia).

Japan

Poland

  • Kaffa (1462–1475)

Portugal

Russia and the Soviet Union

De facto

Some sources mention the following territories as de facto Russian protectorates:

Spain

Turkey and the Ottoman Empire

De facto

United Nations

United States

Contemporary usage

Some agencies of the United States government, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, refer to the District of Columbia and insular areas of the United States—such as American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands—as protectorates. However, the agency responsible for the administration of those areas, the Office of Insular Affairs within the United States Department of the Interior, uses only the term "insular area" rather than protectorate.

Joint protectorates

See also

Notes

Bibliography

  • Hoffmann, Gerhard (1987). . Encyclopedia of Disputes Installment 10. Elsevier. pp. 336–339. doi:. ISBN 9780444862419.
  • Macdonell, John (1911). "Protectorate". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). pp. 468–470.
  • Meijknecht, Anna (2001), , Intersentia NV, ISBN 978-90-5095-166-1
  • Onley, James (March 2009), (PDF), Asian Affairs, 11 (1), archived from (PDF) on 9 October 2022
  • Reisman, W. (1989), "Reflections on state responsibility for violations of explicit protectorate, mandate, and trusteeship obligations", Michigan Journal of International Law, 10 (1): 231–240
  • Willigen, Niels van (2013), , Routledge, ISBN 978-1-134-11718-5
  • Larousse, Pierre; Paul Augé; Claude Augé (1925). Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustré: Dictionnaire Encyclopédique (in French). Larousse.