Protectorate

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A protectorate is a state that is controlled and protected by another sovereign state. It is a dependent territory that has been granted local autonomy over most internal affairs while still recognizing the suzerainty of a more powerful sovereign state without being its direct possession.^[1][2][3] In exchange, the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations depending on the terms of their arrangement.^[3] Usually protectorates are established de jure by a treaty.^[1][2] Under certain conditions as of Egypt under British rule (1882–1914) e.g., a state can also be labelled as a de facto protectorate or a "veiled protectorate".^[4][5][6]

A protectorate is different from a colony as they have local rulers, are not directly possessed and rarely experience colonization by the suzerain state.^[7][8] However, some sources term a state that remains under the protection of another state while retaining its independence as a protected state, different from a protectorate,^[9] while other sources use the terms like synonyms.^[10]

History[]

Protectorates form one of the oldest features of international relations, dating back to the Roman Empire. Civitates foederatae were cities that were subordinate to Rome for their foreign relations. In the Middle Ages, Andorra was a protectorate of France and Spain. Modern protectorate concepts were devised in the nineteenth century.^[11]

Typology[]

Foreign relations[]

In practice, a protectorate often has direct foreign relations only with and transfers the management of all its more important international affairs to the protector.^{[12][3][1][2]} 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.^[13][14] For political and pragmatic reasons, the relationship of protection is not usually advertised, but described in euphemisms such as "an independent state with special treaty relations" with the protecting state.^[15] A protected state appears on world maps just as any other independent state.^[a]

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.^[16]

Colonial protection[]

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Conditions regarding protection are generally much less generous for areas of colonial protection. The protectorate was often reduced to a de facto condition similar to a colony, but the pre-existing native state continuing as the agent of indirect rule. Occasionally, a protectorate was established by another form of indirect rule: a chartered company, which becomes a de facto state in its European home state (but geographically overseas), allowed to be an independent country with its own foreign policy and generally its own armed forces.

In fact, protectorates were declared despite not being duly entered into by the traditional states supposedly being protected, or only by a party of dubious authority in those states. Colonial protectors frequently decided to reshuffle several protectorates into a new, artificial unit without consulting the protectorates, a logic disrespectful of the theoretical duty of a protector to help maintain its protectorates' status and integrity. The Berlin agreement of February 26, 1885, allowed European colonial powers to establish protectorates in Black Africa (the last region to be divided among them) by diplomatic notification, even without actual possession 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 an amalgamation, convenient only for the colonizer or protector, of adjacent territories, over which it held (de facto) sway by protective or "raw" colonial logic.

Amical protection[]

In amical protection as of United States of the Ionian Islands by Britain, the terms are often very favourable for the protectorate.^[17][18] The political interest of the protector is frequently moral (a matter of accepted moral obligation, prestige, ideology, internal popularity, or dynastic, historical, or ethnocultural ties). Also, the protector's interest is 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 relations but may not constitute any real sacrifice, as the protectorate may not have been able to have a similar use of them without the protector's strength.

Amical protection was frequently extended by the great powers to other Christian (generally European) states and to smaller states that had no significant importance.^[ambiguous] After 1815, non-Christian states (such as the Chinese Qing dynasty) also provided amical protection towards other much weaker states.

In 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".^[19]

List of protectorates and protected states[]

Argentina[]

• Equatorial Guinea (1778–1810)^[20]
• Peru (1820–1822)
• Gobierno del Cerrito (1843–1851)
• Paraguay (1876)

De facto[]

• Liga Federal (1815–1820)
• Republic of Tucumán (1820–1821)
• National Territory of Misiones (1865–1954)
• National Territory of the Gran Chaco (1874–1884)
• National Territory of the Patagonia (1878–1884)
• National Territory of the Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands (1884–1991)

British Empire[]

Americas[]

•  Mosquito Coast (1655–1860; over Central America's Miskito Indian nation)

Europe[]

• Malta Protectorate (1800–1813); Crown Colony of Malta proclaimed in 1813) (de jure part of the Kingdom of Sicily but under British protection)
• Ionian islands (1815-1864) (a Greek state and amical protectorate of Great Britain between 1815 and 1864)
• British Cyprus (1871–1914) (put under British military administration 1914–22 then proclaimed a Crown Colony 1922–60)

South Asia[]

• Cis-Sutlej states^[21][22] (1809–1862)
•  Kingdom of Nepal (1816–1923; protected state)^[15]
• Princely states (1857–1947; vassal states)
•  Kingdom of Sikkim (1861–1947)^[23]
• Maldive Islands (1887–1965)^[24]
•  Emirate of Afghanistan (1879–1919; protected state)^[15]
•  Bhutan (1910–1947; protected state)^[15]

Western Asia[]

• British Residency of the Persian Gulf (1822–1971); headquarters based in Bushire, Persia
  •  Bahrain, protected state (1880–1971)^[15]
  • Sheikhdom of Kuwait, protected state (1899–1961)^[15]
  • Qatar (1916–1971)
  •  Trucial States; precursor state of the UAE, protected states (1892–1971)^[15]
    • Abu Dhabi (1820–1971)
    • Ajman (1820–1971)
    • Dubai (1835–1971)
    • Fujairah (1952–1971)
    • Ras Al Khaimah (1820–1971)
    • Sharjah (1820–1971)
      • Kalba (1936–1951)
    • Umm al-Qaiwain (1820–1971)
  •  Muscat and Oman (1892–1977; informal, protected state)^[25][26]
• Aden Protectorate (1872–1963); precursor state of South Yemen^[27]
  • Eastern Protectorate States (mostly in Haudhramaut); later the Protectorate of South Arabia (1963–1967)
    • Kathiri
    • Mahra
    • Qu'aiti
    • Upper Yafa (consisted of five Sheikhdoms: Al-Busi, Al-Dhubi, Hadrami, Maflahi, and Mawsata)
    • Hawra
    • Irqa
  • Western Protectorate States; later the Federation of South Arabia (1959/1962–1967), including Aden Colony
    • Wahidi Sultanates (these included: Balhaf, Azzan, Bir Ali, and Habban)
    • Beihan
    • Dhala and Qutaibi
    • Fadhli
    • Lahej
    • Lower Yafa
    • Audhali
    • Haushabi
    • Upper Aulaqi Sheikhdom
    • Upper Aulaqi Sultanate
    • Lower Aulaqi
    • Alawi
    • Aqrabi
    • Dathina
    • Shaib

Africa[]

•  British Somaliland (1884–1960)^[27]
• Bechuanaland Protectorate (1885–1966)
•  Barotseland Protectorate (1889–1964)
• Nyasaland Protectorate (1893–1964) ( British Central Africa Protectorate from 1889 until 1907)
•  Sultanate of Zanzibar (1890–1963)
• Gambia Colony and Protectorate* (1894–1965)
• Uganda Protectorate (1894–1962)
• East Africa Protectorate (1895–1920)
• Sierra Leone Protectorate* (1896–1961)
• Northern Nigeria Protectorate* (1900–1914)
• Swaziland (1903–1968)
• Southern Nigeria Protectorate (1900–1914)
• Northern Territories of the Gold Coast (British protectorate) (1901-1957)
• Sultanate of Egypt (1914–1922)
• Kenya Protectorate* (1920–1963)
•  Kingdom of Egypt (1922–1936)^[28]
•  Northern Rhodesia (1924–1964)

*protectorates which existed alongside a colony of the same name

Oceania[]

•  Territory of Papua (1884–1888)
• Tokelau (1877–1916)
• Cook Islands (1888–1893)
•  Gilbert and Ellice Islands (1892–1916)
• British Solomon Islands (1893–1978)
• Niue (1900–1901)
•  Tonga (1900–1970)

East and Southeast Asia[]

• British North Borneo (1888–1946)
•  Brunei (1888–1984)
•  Raj of Sarawak (1888–1946)
•  Tibet (protected state) (1904-1908; 1912–1921)^{[citation needed]}
• Federation of Malaya (1948–1957)
  •  Federated Malay States (1895–1946)
    •  Negeri Sembilan (1888–1895)
      • Sungai Ujong (1874–1888)
      • Jelebu (1886–1895)1946)
    •  Pahang (1888–1895)
    •  Perak (1874–1895)
    •  Selangor (1874–1895)
  • Unfederated Malay States (1904/09–1946)
    •  Johor (1914–1946)
      •  Johor Muar (1897–1909)
    •  Kedah (1909–1946)
      •  Kedah Kulim (1894–1909)
    •  Kelantan (1909–1946)
    •  Perlis (1909–1946)
    •  Terengganu (1909–1946)

China[]

• Han dynasty:
  • Protectorate of the Western Regions
• Tang dynasty:
  • Protectorate General to Pacify the West
  • Protectorate General to Pacify the North
  • Protectorate General to Pacify the East
• Yuan dynasty:
  • Goryeo (1270–1356)^[29]
• Qing dynasty:
  • Tibet^{[30][31][32][b]}

Dutch Empire[]

• Various sultanates in the Dutch East Indies (present Indonesia)
  • Trumon Sultanate (1770?), Langkat Sultanate (26 October 1869), Deli Sultanate (22 August 1862), Asahan Sultanate (27 September 1865), Siak Sultanate (1 February 1858) and Indragiri Sultanate (1838?) in Sumatra
  • Jogjakarta Sultanate (13 February 1755), Mataram Empire and Surakarta Sunanate (26 February 1677), Duchy of Mangkunegara (24 February 1757) and Duchy of Paku Alaman (22 June 1812) in Java.
  • Sumbawa Sultanate (?) and Bima Sultanate (8 December 1669) in Lesser Sunda Islands.
  • Pontianak Sultanate (16 August 1819), Sambas Sultanate (1819), Kubu Sultanate (4 June 1823), Landak Sultanate (?), Mempawah Sultanate (?), Matan Sultanate (?), Sanggau Sultanate (?), Sekadau Sultanate (?), Simpang Sultanate (?), Sintang Sultanate (1822), Sukadana Sultanate (?), Kota Waringin Sultanate (?), Kutai Kertanegara Sultanate (8 August 1825), Gunung Tabur Sultanate (?) and Bulungan Sultanate (?) in Borneo.
  • Gowa Sultanate (1669), Bone Sultanate (?), Sidenreng Sultanate (?), Soppeng Sultanate (?), Butung Sultanate (?), Muna Sultanate (?) and Banggai Sultanate (?) in Celebes.
  • Ternate (12 October 1676) and Batjan Sultanate (?) in The Moluccas.
  • Kaimana Sultanate (?) in Dutch New Guinea.

France[]

Africa[]

The legal regime of "protection" was the formal legal structure under which French colonial forces expanded in Africa between the 1830s and 1900. Almost every pre-existing state in the area later covered by 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 the lowest level authority figure in the French Cercles, with leaders appointed and removed by French officials.^[36]

• Benin traditional states
  • Independent of Danhome, under French protectorate, from 1889
  • Porto-Novo a French protectorate, 23 February 1863 – 2 January 1865. Cotonou a French Protectorate, 19 May 1868. Porto-Novo French protectorate, 14 April 1882.
• Central African Republic traditional states:
  • French protectorate over (1912 Sultanate suppressed by the French), 12 December 1897
  • French protectorate over the Sultanate of Bangassou, 1894
• Burkina Faso was since 20 February 1895 a French protectorate named Upper Volta (Haute-Volta)
• Chad: Baghirmi state 20 September 1897 a French protectorate
• Côte d'Ivoire: 10 January 1889 French protectorate of Ivory Coast
• Guinea: 5 August 1849 French protectorate over coastal region; (Riviéres du Sud).
• Niger, Sultanate of Damagaram (Zinder), 30 July 1899 under French protectorate over the native rulers, titled Damagaram or Sultan
• Senegal: 4 February 1850 First of several French protectorate treaties with local rulers
• Comoros 21 April 1886 French protectorate (Anjouan) until 25 July 1912 when annexed.
• Present Djibouti was originally, since 24 June 1884, the Territory of Obock and Protectorate of Tadjoura (Territoires Français d'Obock, Tadjoura, Dankils et Somalis), a French protectorate recognized by Britain on 9 February 1888, renamed on 20 May 1896 as French Somaliland (Côte Française des Somalis).
• Mauritania on 12 May 1903 French protectorate; within Mauritanian several traditional states:
  • Adrar emirate since 9 January 1909 French protectorate (before Spanish)
  • The Taganit confederation's emirate (founded by Idaw `Ish dynasty), since 1905 under French protectorate.
  • Brakna confederation's emirate
  • Emirate of Trarza: 15 December 1902 placed under French protectorate status.
• Morocco – most of the sultanate was under French protectorate (30 March 1912 – 7 April 1956) although, in theory, it remained a sovereign state under the Treaty of Fez;^[37] this^[which?] fact was confirmed by the International Court of Justice in 1952.^[38]
  • The northern part of Morocco was under Spanish protectorate in the same period.
• Traditional Madagascar States
  • Kingdom of Imerina under French protectorate, 6 August 1896. French Madagascar colony, 28 February 1897.
• Tunisia (12 May 1881 – 20 March 1956): became a French protectorate by treaty

Americas[]

• Second Mexican Empire (1863-1867), established by Emperor Napoleon III during the Second French intervention in Mexico and ruled by the Austrian-born, French puppet monarch Maximilian I

Asia[]

• French Indochina until 1953/54:
  • Annam and Tonkin 6 June 1884
  • Cambodia 11 August 1863
  • Laos 3 October 1893

Europe[]

• Rhenish Republic (1923–1924)
• Saar Protectorate (1947–1956), not colonial or amical, but a former part of Germany that would by referendum return to it, in fact a re-edition of a former League of Nations mandate. Most French protectorates were colonial.

Oceania[]

• French Polynesia, mainly the Society Islands (several others were immediately annexed).^[39] All eventually were annexed by 1889.
  • Otaheiti (native king styled ) becomes a French protectorate known as Tahiti, 1842–1880
  • Raiatea and Tahaa (after temporary annexation by Otaheiti; (title Ari`i) a French protectorate, 1880)
  • Mangareva (one of the Gambier Islands; ruler title ) a French protectorate, 16 February 1844 (unratified) and 30 November 1871^[40]
• 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[]

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:

• German New Guinea (1884–1914), now part of Papua New Guinea
• German South West Africa (1884–1914), present-day Namibia
• Togoland (1884–1914), now part of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
• North Solomon Islands (1885–1914), now part of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
• Wituland (1885–1890), now part of Kenya
• Ruanda-Urundi (1894–1916)
• German Samoa (1900–1914), present-day Samoa
• Marshall Islands
• Nauru, various officials posted with the Head Chiefs

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

• Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939–1945)
• Denmark (1940–1943)

India[]

• Bhutan (1947–present; protected state)^[9][41]
• Kingdom of Sikkim (1950–1975), later acceded to India as State of Sikkim.^[9]

Italy[]

• The Albanian Republic (1917–1920) and the Albanian Kingdom (1939–1940)
• Independent State of Croatia (1941–1943)
• 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.
• Somalia: 3 August 1889 Benadir Coast 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[]

• Korean Empire (1905–1910)
• Manchukuo (1932–1945)

Poland[]

• Kaffa (1462–1475)

Portugal[]

• Cabinda (Portuguese Congo) (1885–1974), Portugal first claimed sovereignty over Cabinda in the February 1885 Treaty of Simulambuco, which gave Cabinda the status of a protectorate of the Portuguese Crown under the request of "the princes and governors of Cabinda".
• Kingdom of Kongo (1857–1914)
• Gaza Empire (1824–1895), now part of Mozambique
• Angoche Sultanate (1903–1910)

Russia and the Soviet Union[]

• Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (1783–1801)
• Kingdom of Imereti (1804–1810)
• Revolutionary Serbia (1807–1812)
• Principality of Serbia (1826–1856), now part of Serbia
• Moldavia (1829–1856), now part of Moldova, Romania and Ukraine
• Wallachia (1829–1856)
• Emirate of Bukhara (1873–1920)
• Khanate of Khiva (1873–1920)
• Uryankhay Krai (1914)
• Second East Turkestan Republic (1944-1949), now part of Xinjiang, China

De facto[]

Some sources mention following states as de facto Russian protectorates:^{[42][43][44][45][46]}

• South Ossetia (1990–present)
• Transnistria (1992–present)
• Abkhazia (1994–present)
• Donetsk People's Republic (2015–present)
• Luhansk People's Republic (2015–present)

Spain[]

• Spanish Morocco protectorate from 27 November 1912 until 2 April 1958 (Northern zone until 7 April 1956, Southern zone (Cape Juby) until 2 April 1958).

Turkey and the Ottoman Empire[]

• Aceh Sultanate (1569–1903)
• Maldives (1560–1590)
• Cossack Hetmanate (1669–1685)

De facto[]

• Northern Cyprus (1983–present)

United Nations[]

• UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (1999–2002)^[47][48]

United States[]

• Liberia (1822–1847)^[49][50]
• Cuba (1898–1934)^[51][52][53]
• Republic of Negros (1899–1901)
• Republic of Zamboanga (1899-1903)
• Sultanate of Sulu (1903-1915)
• Philippines (1935–1946),^[54] under the provisions of the Tydings–McDuffie Act, the territory would become self-governing although its military and foreign affairs would be under the United States.

Contemporary usage by the United States[]

Some agencies of the United States government, such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency, still use the term protectorate to refer to insular areas of the United States such as Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.^[55] This was also the case with the Philippines and (it can be argued via the Platt Amendment) Cuba at the end of Spanish colonial rule.^[51] Liberia was the only African nation that was a colony for the United States but the government had no control over the land as it was controlled by the privately owned American Colonization Society. It was, however, a protectorate from January 7, 1822, until the Liberian Declaration of Independence from the American Colonization Society on July 26, 1847. Liberia was founded and established as a homeland for freed African-Americans and ex-Caribbean slaves who left the United States and the Caribbean islands with help and support from the American Colonization Society.^[49][50] However, the agency responsible for the administration of those areas, the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) within the United States Department of Interior, uses only the term "insular area" rather than protectorate.

• Panama Canal Zone (1903–1979)^[56]
• Puerto Rico
• Northern Mariana Islands
• Guam

De facto[]

• Territory of Alaska (1867–1958)
• Territory of Hawaii (1898–1959)
• Haiti (1915–1934)^[57]
• Dominican Republic (1916–1924)^[57]

Joint protectorates[]

• Republic of Ragusa (1684–1798), a joint Habsburg Austrian–Ottoman Turkish protectorate
• The United States of the Ionian Islands and the Septinsular Republic were federal republics of seven formerly Venetian (see Provveditore) Ionian islands (Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Cerigo, and Paxos), officially under joint protectorate of the Allied Christian Powers, de facto a British amical protectorate from 1815 to 1864.
• Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899–1956)

See also[]

• British Protected Person
• Client state
• European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• EUFOR Althea
• High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
• League of Nations mandate
• Peace Implementation Council
• Protector (titles for Heads of State and other individual persons)
• Puerto Rico
• Tribute

Notes[]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Onley, James (March 2009), "The Raj Reconsidered: British India's Informal Empire and Spheres of Influence in Asia and Africa" (PDF), Asian Affairs, 11 (1)
• Meijknecht, Anna (2001), Towards International Personality: The Position of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in International Law, Intersentia NV, ISBN 978-90-5095-166-1
• Willigen, Niels van (2013), Peacebuilding and International Administration: The Cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-134-11718-5

French[]

• Larousse, Pierre; Paul Augé; Claude Augé (1925). Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustré: Dictionnaire Encyclopédique. Larousse.