Client state

A client state, in the context of international relations, is an umbrella term that broadly refers to any state economically, politically, and militarily subordinated to a more powerful controlling state. It typically describes a bilateral relationship that is mutually beneficial, characterized by different but shared obligations.
Variants of a client state are associated state, dominion, condominium, self-governing colony, neo-colony, protectorate, suzerain, puppet state, satellite state, vassal state and tributary state.

Controlling states in history

Persia, Greece, Ancient China and Rome

Ancient states such as Persia, 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 which, instead of conquering and then absorbing into an empire, chose to make client states out of those it defeated, 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

The number of tributary or vassal states varied over time but most notable were the Khanate of Crimea, Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, the Western Georgian principalities, the Sharifate of Mecca, Awlad Muhammad Dynasty and the Sultanate of Aceh.

19th and 20th centuries

Russian Empire

It is often said that, prior to the Partitions of Poland, during the reigns of Augustus II and Augustus III, Poland-Lithuania was essentially a client state of Russia, since both kings were elected with strong Russian backing against French- and Swedish-influenced Stanislaw I, later staying in power with extensive Russian support.
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. Russia also wanted Bulgaria and Montenegro as client states, although Bulgaria joined the war on the side of Austria-Hungary.
At the time, Great Britain and Austria-Hungary both considered Serbia as a client state controlled by Russia.

First French Empire

During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, France conquered most of western Europe and established several client states.
At first, during the French Revolutionary Wars, these states were erected as "Républiques sœurs". They were established in Italy, Greece, Switzerland, and Belgium and the Netherlands.
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, and to some degree former Belgian colonies in Africa. 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. 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, and the Unfederated Malay States; the policy of indirect rule.

Germany

World War I

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 have been called client states.

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.

In 1915, the Japanese government published the Twenty-One Demands, whose last seven demands of Section 5 would've transformed the Chinese economy and government so much that China would've essentially become a client state of Japan. During World War II, Macau was left unoccupied by the Japanese military, unlike neighboring Hong Kong or fellow Portuguese colony Timor, yet Japanese civilian advisors were forcefully installed to patrol the city instead, thus turning it into a de facto Japanese protectorate.

Soviet Union

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, North Vietnam, the Socialist Republic of 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.