Client state explained

In the field of international relations, a client state, is a state that is economically, politically, and militarily subordinated to a more powerful controlling state.[1] Alternative terms for a client state are satellite state, associated state, and dominion, condominium, self-governing colony, and neo-colony, protectorate, vassal state, puppet state, and tributary state.

Controlling states in history

Persia, Greece, Ancient China and Rome

See also: List of Roman client rulers and Client kingdoms in ancient Rome. Ancient states such as Persia and Parthia, Greek city-states, Ancient China and Ancient Rome sometimes created client states by making the leaders of that state subservient, having to provide tribute and soldiers. Classical Athens, for example, forced weaker states into the Delian League and in some cases imposed democratic governments on them. Later, Philip II of Macedon similarly imposed the League of Corinth. One of the most prolific users of client states was Republican Rome[2] [3] which, instead of conquering and then absorbing into an empire, chose to make client states out of those it defeated (e.g. Demetrius of Pharos), a policy which was continued up until the 1st century BCE when it became the Roman Empire. Sometimes the client was not a former enemy but a pretender whom Rome helped, Herod the Great being a well-known example. The use of client states continued through the Middle Ages as the feudal system began to take hold.

Ottoman Empire

See main article: Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire. The number of tributary or vassal states varied over time but most notable were the Khanate of Crimea, Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, the Sharifate of Mecca, and the Sultanate of Aceh.

19th and 20th centuries

Russian Empire

See main article: Russia–Serbia relations. Austria-Hungary tried to make Serbia a client state in order to form a Christian opposition to the Ottoman Empire, but after the 1903 May Coup, Serbia came under the influence of Russia, which was forming a pan-Eastern Orthodox opposition to the Latin Christianity represented by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1914, Russia repeatedly warned Austria-Hungary against attacking Serbia. When it did attack, Russia mobilised its army.[4] [5] [6] Russia also wanted Bulgaria[7] and Montenegro[8] as client states.

At the time, Great Britain and Austria-Hungary both considered Serbia as a client state controlled by Russia.[9]

First French Empire

See main article: List of French client states. During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras (1789–1815), France conquered most of western Europe and established several client states.

At first, during the French Revolutionary Wars, these states were erected as "Républiques soeurs" ("sister republics"). They were established in Italy (the Cisalpine Republic in Northern Italy and the Parthenopean Republic in Southern Italy), Greece (Îles Ioniennes), Switzerland (the Helvetic Republic and the Rhodanic Republic), and Belgium and the Netherlands (Batavian Republic).

During the First French Empire, while Napoleon I and the French Army occupied much of Europe, such states changed, and several new states were formed. The Italian republics were transformed into the Kingdom of Italy under Napoleon's direct rule in the north, and the Kingdom of Naples in the south, first under Joseph Bonaparte and later under Marshal Joachim Murat. A third state was created in the Italian Peninsula, the Kingdom of Etruria. The Batavian Republic was replaced by the Kingdom of Holland, ruled by Napoleon's third brother, Louis Bonaparte.

A total of 35 German states, all of them allies of France, seceded from the Holy Roman Empire to create the Confederation of the Rhine, a client state created to provide a buffer between France and its two largest enemies to the east, Prussia and Austria. Two of those states were Napoleonic creations: the Kingdom of Westphalia, which was controlled by Jérôme Bonaparte, the Emperor's youngest brother; and the Grand Duchy of Würzburg as was Poland, then the Duchy of Warsaw.

During the French invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, Napoleon attempted to subjugate Portugal and Spain into a client Kingdom of Spain, but the French were eventually driven out of Iberia in a costly war.

France after decolonisation

In the 20th century, France exercised a sphere of influence, or Françafrique over its former African colonies,[10] [11] and to some degree former Belgian colonies in Africa (which were also French-speaking). The term is sometimes used pejoratively, to characterise the relationship with France as neocolonial. The former colonies provide oil and minerals important to the French economy, and in some, French companies have commercial interests.

British Empire

The Indian princely states were nominally sovereign entities in the British Empire and in 1947, were given a choice to either accede to independent India or Pakistan or get independence (the Nizam of Hyderabad did opt for independence but his kingdom was annexed by Indian forces in 1948). Egyptian independence in 1922 ended its brief status as a British protectorate and Iraq was made a kingdom in 1932. But in both cases, the economic and military reality did not amount to full independence, but a status where the local rulers were British clients. Other instances include Africa (e.g. Northern Nigeria under Lord Lugard), and the Unfederated Malay States; the policy of indirect rule.

Germany

World War I

See main article: article.

World War II

United States

The term has also been applied to states which are extremely economically dependent on a more powerful nation. The three Pacific Ocean countries associated with the United States under the Compact of Free Association (the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau) have been called client states.[16] [17] [18]

Imperial Japan

In the late 19th century, the Empire of Japan gradually reduced Joseon Korea's status to that of a client state. In the early 20th century, this was converted to direct rule. Manchukuo, in contrast, remained a puppet state throughout World War II.

Soviet Union

See also: Soviet Empire. Soviet proxy, "satellite", or client states included much of the Warsaw Pact member states whose policies were heavily influenced by Soviet military power and economic aid. Other nations with Marxist–Leninist governments were routinely criticised as being Soviet proxies as well, among them Cuba following the Cuban Revolution, the Chinese Soviet Republic, North Korea,[23] North Vietnam, South Yemen, the People's Republic of Angola, the People's Republic of Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Within the Soviet Union itself, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR, had seats at the United Nations, but were actually proper Soviet territory.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Michael Graham Fry, Erik Goldstein, Richard Langhorne. Guide to International Relations and Diplomacy. London, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Continuum International Publishing, 2002. Pp. 9.
  2. Book: Herod's Judaea. 9783161497179. Rocca. Samuel. 2008. Mohr Siebeck .
  3. Collected studies: Alexander and his successors in Macedonia, by Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond,1994, page 257,"to Demetrius of Pharos, whom she set up as a client king
  4. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov warned Austria in 1914 that Russia "Would respond militarily to any action against the client state." Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (2012) p 481.
  5. Book: Thomas F. X. Noble. et al. Western Civilization: Beyond Boundaries, Volume C: Since 1789. 2010. Cengage. 692. 978-1424069606.
  6. Book: Michael J. Lyons. World War II: A Short History. 2016. Routledge. 3–4. 9781315509440.
  7. Book: Barbara Jelavich. Russia and the Formation of the Romanian National State, 1821–1878. 2004. Cambridge UP. 288. 9780521522519.
  8. Book: Clive Ponting. Thirteen Days: The Road to the First World War. 2002. Chatto & Windus. 60. 9780701172930.
  9. Book: Henry Cowper. World War One and Its Consequences. 1990. Open University Press. 209. 9780335093076.
  10. Web site: The French African Connection . September 27, 2018 . April 7, 2014 . Al Jazeera . November 12, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181112013750/https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/08/201387113131914906.html . dead .
  11. News: The Return of Françafrique . September 27, 2018 . Haski . Pierre . July 21, 2013 . The New York Times . New York .
  12. The Regency Kingdom has been referred to as a puppet state by Norman Davies in Europe: A history (Google Print, p. 910); by Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki in A Concise History of Poland (Google Print, p. 218); by Piotr J. Wroblel in Chronology of Polish History and Nation and History (Google Print, p. 454); and by Raymond Leslie Buell in Poland: Key to Europe (Google Print, p. 68: "The Polish Kingdom... was merely a pawn [of Germany]").
  13. Kataryna Wolczuk. The Moulding of Ukraine: The Constitutional Politics of State Formation. p. 37.
  14. Kevin O'Connor, The History of the Baltic States, page 78, .
  15. Book: Rayfield, Donald . Edge of empires: a history of Georgia . 2012 . Reaktion Books . 978-1-78023-030-6 . London . 326–331.
  16. Book: Hanlon, David L. . Pacific Futures: Past and Present . 2018 . Warwick Anderson . Miranda Johnson . Barbara Brookes . A Different Historiography for "A Handful of Chickpeas Flung Over the Sea": Approaching the Federated States of Micronesia's Deeper Past. University of Hawai'i Press . 978-0-8248-7742-2.
  17. Mundi . Chen . Millie . The Marshall Islands and U.S. Imperial Relations . Temple University . 2020 . 1 . 1 .
  18. News: Rampell . Ed . George H.W. Bush: Dirty Tricks and Regime Change in Nuclear-Free Palau . 15 April 2023 . Island Times . 8 January 2019.
  19. Web site: China grapples with preserving reminders of Japanese occupation . 2022-05-31 . Nikkei Asia . en-GB.
  20. Web site: Transimperial Genealogies of Korea as a Protectorate: The Egypt Model in Japan's Politics of Colonial Comparison Cross-Currents . 2022-05-31 . cross-currents.berkeley.edu . 2022-03-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220317192743/https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-32/mizutani . dead .
  21. Web site: How Japan Took Control of Korea HISTORY. 2021-07-02. www.history.com.
  22. Web site: Japanese Rule Over Korea - A Liberation Day Korea History - Koryo Tours . 2022-06-02 . koryogroup.com . 15 August 2020 . en.
  23. Why North Korea is betting big on nuclear weapons. 8 January 2016. Mizokami. Kyle. The Week.