Protectorate

A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law.[1] 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.[2][3][4] In exchange, the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations depending on the terms of their arrangement.[4] Usually protectorates are established de jure by a treaty.[2][3] 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.[5][6][7]

A protectorate is different from a colony as it has local rulers, is not directly possessed, and rarely experiences colonization by the suzerain state.[8][9] A state that is under the protection of another state while retaining its "international personality" is called a "protected state", not a protectorate.[10][lower-alpha 1]

History

Protectorates are 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 the protector state, and transfers the management of all its more important international affairs to the latter.[12][4][2][3] 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.[10][13]

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.[14] A protected state appears on world maps just as any other independent state.[lower-alpha 1]

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.[15]

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.[16][17] Conditions of 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 with 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 often declared despite no agreement being duly entered into by the state supposedly being protected, or only agreed to 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, without being mindful of the theoretical duty of a protector to help maintain a protectorate's 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 power.

Amical protection

In amical protection—as of United States of the Ionian Islands by Britain—the terms are often very favourable for the protectorate.[18][19] 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 states of no significant importance. After 1815, non-Christian states (such as the Chinese Qing dynasty) also provided amical protection of 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".[20]

Argentina's protectorates

Liga Federal (1815–1820)
Peru (1820–1822)
Riograndense Republic (1836-1845)
Juliana Republic (1839-1845)
Gobierno del Cerrito (1843–1851)
Paraguay (1876)

De facto

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)

Brazil's protectorates

Republic of Acre (1899-1903)

British Empire's protectorates and protected states

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)[14]
Princely states (1857–1947; vassal states)
Kingdom of Sikkim (1861–1947)[23]
Maldive Islands (1887–1965)[24]
Emirate of Afghanistan (1879–1919; protected state)[14]
Bhutan (1910–1947; protected state)[14]

Western Asia

British Residency of the Persian Gulf (1822–1971); headquarters based in Bushire, Persia
- Bahrain, protected state (1880–1971)[14]
- Sheikhdom of Kuwait, protected state (1899–1961)[14]
- Qatar, protected state (1916–1971)
- Trucial States; precursor state of the UAE, protected states (1892–1971)[14]
  - 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 (1892–1971; 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

1960 stamp of Bechuanaland Protectorate with the portraits of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II

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)
Nigeria* (1914-1960)
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)
Northern Rhodesia (1924–1964)

*protectorates which existed alongside a colony of the same name