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Puppet state is a term of political criticism, used to denigrate a government which is either perceived as, or is actually unduly dependent upon an outside power. It implies that government's lack of legitimacy, in the view of those using the term.
In the Middle Ages vassal states existed which were based on delegation of rule of a country from 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. The derogatory description "puppet state" became meaningful within that new meaning of sovereignty. The first recorded use of the term "puppet government" is from 1884, in reference to Egypt.[1]
The Batavian Republic was established in the Netherlands under French revolutionary protection.
In Italy, republics were created in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the assistance and encouragement of Napoleonic France. See also French client republics.
In 1836 U.S. citizens allowed to live in the Mexican state of Texas revolted against the Mexican government to establish a U.S.-backed Republic of Texas, a country that existed less than 10 years (from May 14, 1836 to December 29, 1845) before it was annexed to the United States of America. However, since August 1837, Memucan Hunt, Jr., the Texan minister to the United States, submitted the first official annexation proposal to the Van Buren administration.
In 1895, Japan detached Korea from its tributary relationship with China, giving it formal independence which was a prelude to Japanese annexation.
In 1896 Britain established a state in Zanzibar.
During Japan's imperial period, and particularly during the Pacific War (parts of which are considered the Pacific theatre of World War II), Japan established a number of dependent states.
Japan had made drafts for other dependent states.
The Provisional Priamurye Government has never got beyond the planning stages. In addition to the Japanese, the Germans supported the formation of this state. In 1943, the plans for a White Russian state died for good after the Battle for Stalingrad.
In 1945, as the Second World War drew to a close, Japan planned to grant independence to the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia). These plans ended when the Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945.
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.
As Soviet forces prevailed over the German Army on the Eastern Front during the Second World War, the Soviet Union supported the creation of communist governments in Eastern Europe. Specifically, the co-belligerence status could also be made for these states.
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 United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. Pro-Axis governments in both Iraq and Iran were removed and replaced with Allied-dominated governments.
In some cases, the process of decolonization has been managed by the decolonizing 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.
Following Belgian Congo's independence as the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) in 1960, Belgian interests supported the short-lived breakaway state of Katanga (1960–1963).
During the 1950–1953 Korean War, South Korea and the United States alleged that North Korea was a Soviet puppet state. At the same time, South Korea was accused of being an American puppet state by North Korea and its allies. Additionally, in 1951 Dean Rusk, the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, branded the People's Republic of China a "Slavic Manchukuo", implying that it was a puppet state of the Soviet Union just as Manchukuo had been a puppet state of the Empire of Japan. This position was commonly taken by American propaganda of the 1950s, despite the fact that the Chinese communist movement had developed largely independently of the Soviet Union.
Following the victory of the Viet Minh in the First Indochina War, the 1954 Geneva Accords stipulated that Vietnam would be divided for two years only, until national elections could be held. However, the Americans along with Ngo Dinh Diem feared that Ho Chi Minh and the Communists would win the election. The State of Vietnam and the United States didn't sign the Geneva Accords, citing that it was impossible to hold free and fair nationwide democratic elections in the communist North, and this was later expressed by UN observers monitoring the partition of Vietnam. As a result, South Vietnam and the U.S. were not bound by its terms. In 1955 the Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, supported by the United States, declared the independence of the Republic of Vietnam in the southern half of Vietnam. Over time, Diem grew increasingly uncomfortable with the role of the U.S. in his country, complaining that they were increasing the conflict with North Vietnam. Diem's complaints became more vocal as American soldiers, called "advisors", continued to pour into the country, and some began calling Diem an uncooperative client and a puppet pulling his own strings.[12] After he became seen more as a liability than an asset to America, Diem was assassinated in 1963 with the complicity of the CIA and John F. Kennedy.[13]
During the Vietnam War, South Vietnam was allied with the U.S. and other anti-communist states in Asia and the West, whereas North Vietnam was allied with China, and particularly the Soviet Union, and with other socialist and communist nations. The Paris Peace Accords were preceded by months of intensive negotiations over whether the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam (Viet Cong) should be treated as an independent party or as a puppet of North Vietnam.
During the 1970s and 1980s, four ethnic bantustans, some of which were extremely fragmented, were carved out of South Africa and given nominal sovereignty. Two (Ciskei and Transkei) were for the Xhosa people; and one each for the Tswana people (Bophuthatswana) and for the Venda people (Venda Republic).
The principal purpose of these states was to remove the Xhosa, Tswana and Venda peoples from South African citizenship (and so to provide grounds for denying them democratic rights). All four were reincorporated into South Africa in 1994.
The Republic of Kuwait was a short-lived pro-Iraq state in the Persian Gulf that only existed three weeks before it was annexed by Iraq.
The Republic of Crimea, a short-lived pro-Russian state before it was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Germany, Italy, Serbia, Russian Empire, Slovenia
Holy Roman Empire, Corsica, Dutch Republic, Paris, Rhône-Alpes
Mexico, Austria-Hungary, Soviet Union, United States, German Empire