Puppet state

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Template:Short description Template:Pp-semi-indef Template:More footnotes Template:Use dmy dates Template:Forms of government A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government[1] is a state that is de jure independent but de facto completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.[2] Puppet states have nominal sovereignty, except that a foreign power effectively exercises control through economic or military support.[3] By leaving a local government in existence the outside power evades all responsibility, while at the same time successfully paralysing the local government they tolerate.[1]Template:How

Puppet states differ from allies, who choose their actions of their own initiative or in accordance with treaties they have voluntarily entered. Puppet states are forced into legally endorsing actions already taken by a foreign power.

Characteristics

Puppet states are "endowed with the outward symbols of authority",[4] such as a name, flag, anthem, constitution, law codes, motto, and government, but in reality, are appendages of another state which creates,[5] sponsors or otherwise controls the puppet government. International law does not recognise occupied puppet states as legitimate.[6]

Puppet states can cease to be puppets through:

  • military defeat of the "master" state (as in Europe and Asia in 1945),
  • absorption into the master state (as in the early Soviet Union),
  • achievement of independence

Terminology

The term is a metaphor which compares a state or government to a puppet controlled by a puppeteer with strings.[7] The first recorded use of the term "puppet government" was in 1884, in reference to the Khedivate of Egypt.[8]Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

In the Middle Ages, vassal states existed based on delegation of the rule of a country by a king to noble men of lower rank. Since the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, the concept of a nation came into existence where sovereignty was connected more to the people who inhabited the land than to the nobility who owned the land.

An earlier similar concept is suzerainty, the control of the external affairs of one state by another.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Nineteenth-century examples

French revolutionary and Napoleon/Napoleonic clients

File:Europe 1812 map en.png
The First French Empire and its satellite states in 1812

The Batavian Republic was established in the Netherlands under French revolutionary protection.

In Italy, the French First Republic encouraged a proliferation of small republics in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, known as sister republics.

In Eastern Europe, Napoleon's First French Empire established the Polish client state of the Duchy of Warsaw.[9]

British Empire

File:British Indian Empire 1909 Imperial Gazetteer of India.jpg
Map of the British Indian Empire, with princely states in yellow

In 1896, Britain established a state in Zanzibar.

Early twentieth-century examples

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Established by the German Empire

By others

World War II

Imperial Japan

Script error: No such module "labelled list hatnote". During Japan's imperial period, and particularly during the Pacific War (parts of which are considered the Pacific theatre of World War II), the Imperial Japanese government established a number of dependent states.

Nominally sovereign states

File:Manchukuo map 1939.svg
Location of Manchukuo (red) within Imperial Japan's sphere of influence
File:Wang Jingwei and Nazis.jpg
Wang Jingwei receiving German diplomats as head of state of the Reorganised Nationalist Government of the Republic of China in 1941
In China

Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy

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File:World War II in Europe, 1942.svg
German-occupied Europe at the height of the Axis conquests in 1942

Several European governments under the domination of Germany and Italy during World War II have been described as "puppet régimes". The formal means of control in occupied Europe varied greatly. These states fall into several categories.

Existing states in alliance with Germany and Italy

Existing states under German or Italian rule

New states formed to reflect national aspirations

States and governments under the control of Germany and Italy

Italian Social Republic

  • Template:Flagicon Italian Social Republic (1943–1945, known also as the Republic of Salò) – General Pietro Badoglio and King Victor Emmanuel III withdrew Italy from the Axis powers and moved the government to Southern Italy, already controlled by the Allies. In response, the Germans occupied Northern Italy and founded the Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana or RSI) with Benito Mussolini as its "Head of State" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs". While the RSI government had some trappings of an independent state, it was completely dependent both economically and politically on Germany.

British examples during and after World War II

Script error: No such module "labelled list hatnote". The Axis demand for oil and the concern of the Allies that Germany would look to the oil-rich Middle East for a solution, caused the invasion of Iraq by the United Kingdom and the invasion of Iran by the UK and the Soviet Union. Pro-Axis governments in both Iraq and Iran were removed and replaced with Allied-dominated governments.

  • Template:Flagicon Kingdom of Iraq (1941–1947) – Iraq was important to the United Kingdom because of its position on the route to India. Iraq also could provide strategic oil reserves. But due to the UK's weakness early in the war, Iraq backed away from the pre-war Anglo-Iraqi Alliance. On 1 April 1941, the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq was overthrown by a pro-German coup d'état under Rashid Ali. The Rashid Ali regime began negotiations with the Axis powers and military aid was quickly sent to Mosul via Vichy French-controlled Syria. The Germans provided a squadron of twin-engine fighters and a squadron of medium bombers. The Italians provided a squadron of biplane fighters. In mid-April 1941, a brigade of the 10th Indian Infantry Division landed at Basra (Operation Sabine). On 30 April, British forces at RAF Habbaniya were besieged by a numerically inferior Iraqi force. On 2 May, the British launched pre-emptive airstrikes against the Iraqis and the Anglo-Iraqi War began. By the end of May, the siege of RAF Habbaniya was lifted, Fallujah was taken, Baghdad was surrounded by British forces, and the pro-German government of Rashid Ali collapsed. Rashid Ali and his supporters fled the country. The Hashemite monarchy under King Faisal II was restored, and declared war on the Axis powers in January 1942. British and Commonwealth forces remained in Iraq until 26 October 1947.[20]
  • Template:Flagicon image Imperial State of Iran (1941–1943) – German workers in Iran caused both the UK and the Soviet Union to question Iran's neutrality. In addition, Iran's geographical position was important to the Allies. As a result, the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran (Operation Countenance) was launched in August 1941. The following month, Reza Shah Pahlavi was forced to abdicate his throne and went into exile. He was replaced by his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was willing to declare war on the Axis powers. By January 1942, the UK and the Soviet Union agreed to end their occupation of Iran six months after the end of the war.

Soviet examples after 1939

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Puppet states later absorbed into the Soviet Union

Soviet puppet states in Central Asia

Other states under Soviet influence

Yugoslavia was a communist state closely linked to the Soviet Union, but Yugoslavia retained autonomy within its own borders. After the Tito–Stalin split in 1948, the relationship between the two countries deteriorated significantly. Yugoslavia was expelled from the international organisations of the Eastern Bloc. After Stalin's death and a period of de-Stalinization by Nikita Khrushchev, peace was restored, but the relationship between the two countries was never completely mended. Yugoslavia continued to pursue independent policies and became the founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Examples before and during decolonisation

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". In some cases, the process of decolonisation has been managed by the decolonising power to create a neo-colony, that is a nominally independent state whose economy and politics permits continued foreign domination. Neo-colonies are not normally considered puppet states.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Dutch East Indies

The Netherlands formed several puppet states in the former Dutch East Indies as part of its effort to quell the Indonesian National Revolution.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Congo crisis

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". Following the Belgian Congo's independence as Congo-Leopoldville in 1960, Belgian interests supported the short-lived breakaway State of Katanga (1960–1963).[27]

East Timor

Indonesia established a Provisional Government of East Timor following its invasion of East Timor in December 1975.[28][29][30]

South Africa's Bantustans

File:Namibia homelands 78.jpeg
Map of Bantustans in South West Africa (present-day Namibia) as of 1978

During the 1970s and 1980s, four ethnic Bantustans - some of which were extremely fragmented - called "homelands" by the government of the time, were carved out of South Africa and given nominal sovereignty. Mostly Xhosa people resided in the Ciskei and Transkei, Tswana people in Bophuthatswana, and Venda people in the Venda.[31]Template:Rs?

The principal purpose of these states was to remove South African citizenship from the Xhosa, Tswana, and Venda peoples, and so provide grounds for denying them their democratic rights. All four Bantustans were reincorporated into a democratic South Africa on 27 April 1994, under a new constitution.Template:Fact

The South African authorities established ten Bantustans in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), then illegally occupied by South Africa, in the late 1960s and early 1970s in accordance with the Odendaal Commission. Three of them were granted self-rule. These Bantustans were replaced with separate ethnicity-based governments in 1980.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Post-Cold War examples

Republic of Kuwait

The Republic of Kuwait was a short-lived pro-Iraqi state in the Persian Gulf that only existed three weeks before it was annexed by Iraq in 1990.

Republic of Serbian Krajina

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Recent and current examples

Multiple often unrecognised states had been described or accused of being a puppet state of other countries.

United States

  • Template:Country data Islamic Republic of Afghanistan – Many, including the Taliban who now comprise the country's current government,[33] considered the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to have been a U.S. puppet state.[34]
  • Template:Country data Republic of Iraq (Interim Government and Coalition Provisional Authority) – Critics of the Iraqi Interim Government argued that it existed only at the pleasure of the United States and other coalition countries and considered it a U.S. puppet government.[35] This criticism was also extended to politicians active within the Interim Government, with the media suggesting that Ayad Allawi, was Washington's puppet.[36][37] The CPA's economy was dominated by American influence. The CPA began to dismantle Iraq's centrally planned economy. Paul Bremer, chief executive of the CPA, planned to restructure Iraq's state owned economy with free market thinking. Bremer dropped the corporate tax rate from around 45% to a flat tax rate of 15% and allowed foreign corporations to repatriate all profits earned in Iraq. Opposition from senior Iraqi officials, together with the poor security situation, meant that Bremer's privatisation plan was not implemented during his tenure,[38] though his orders remained in place. CPA Order 39 laid out the framework for full privatisation in Iraq and permitted 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi assets and strengthened the positions of foreign businesses and investors. Critics like Naomi Klein argued that CPA Order 39 was designed to create as favourable an environment for foreign investors as possible, which would allow U.S. corporations to dominate Iraq's economy.[39] Also controversial was CPA Order 17 which granted all foreign contractors operating in Iraq immunity from "Iraqi legal process," effectively granting immunity from any kind of suit, civil or criminal, for actions the contractors engaged in within Iraq.[40] CPA Order 49 also provided significant tax cuts for corporations operating within Iraq by reducing the rate from a maximum of 40% to a maximum of just 15% on income. Furthermore, corporations who collaborated with the CPA were exempted from having to pay any tax.[41]

Armenia

China

Russia

File:Евгений Шевчук и Александр Анкваб.jpg
Abkhazian President Alexander Ankvab with Transnistrian President Yevgeny Shevchuk in 2013. Both Abkhazia and Transnistria have been described as puppet states of Russia.

Turkey

Israel

In Yemen

File:Yemeni Civil War.svg
Map of territorial control in Yemen

Template:Smalldiv

Iran

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates

See also

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References

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Further reading

  • Crawford, James (1979). The Creation of States in International Law. Template:Isbn

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  13. Jowett, Phillip S., Rays of The Rising Sun, Armed Forces of Japan’s Asian Allies 1931–45, Volume I: China & Manchuria, 2004. Helion & Co. Ltd., 26 Willow Rd., Solihull, West Midlands, England, pp. 7–36.
  14. Jowett, Phillip S., Rays of The Rising Sun, Armed Forces of Japan’s Asian Allies 1931–45, Volume I: China & Manchuria, 2004. Helion & Co. Ltd., 26 Willow Rd., Solihull, West Midlands, England, pp. 49–57, 88–89.
  15. Jowett, Phillip S., Rays of The Rising Sun, Armed Forces of Japan’s Asian Allies 1931–45, Volume I: China & Manchuria, 2004. Helion & Co. Ltd., 26 Willow Rd., Solihull, West Midlands, England, pp. 44–47, 85–87.
  16. Jowett, Phillip S., Rays of The Rising Sun, Armed Forces of Japan’s Asian Allies 1931–45, Volume I: China & Manchuria, 2004. Helion & Co. Ltd., 26 Willow Rd., Solihull, West Midlands, England, pp. 63–89.
  17. Friedman, Francine (2004). Bosnia and Herzegovina: a polity on the brink. Routledge. p. 130. Template:ISBN. "...nominally Croatia was ruled by the Italian Duke of Spoleto styled as King"
  18. ...managed to see the puppet Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis through @ Sephardi Jewry: A History of the Judeo-Spanish Community, 14th–20th Centuries, p. 168
  19. Serbia also had a Nazi puppet regime headed by Milan Nedic @ The Balkanization of the West: The Confluence of Postmodernism and Postcommunism, p. 198
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  25. Estonia: Identity and Independence: Translated into English (On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics) Jean-Jacques Subrenat, David Cousins, Alexander Harding, Richard C. Waterhouse. p. 246. Template:ISBN
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  27. Mockler, Antony (1987). The New Mercenaries: The History of the Hired Soldier from the Congo to the Seychelles. New York: Paragon House Publishers. pp. 37–55. Template:ISBN.
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  39. The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein
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