A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a state that is de jure independent but de facto completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal sovereignty, except that a foreign power effectively exercises control through economic or military support. 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.
Characteristics Puppet states are "endowed with the outward symbols of authority",Puppet government, Merriam-Webster such as a name, flag, anthem, constitution, law codes, motto, and government, but in reality, are appendages of another state which creates, sponsors or otherwise controls the puppet government. International law does not recognise occupied puppet states as legitimate.
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
James Crawford states that a “puppet” regime can be generally identified based on the circumstances of its creation and the degree of foreign control over it. A presumption may apply when a regime is established through belligerent occupation, illegal intervention, or the threat or use of force; otherwise, puppet status is determined by facts such as whether it was unlawfully imposed, rejected by most of the population, controlled or directed by a foreign power in important matters, or staffed by nationals of that foreign power. Crawford goes on to state that the existence of ordinary administrative officials or a formal government does not necessarily change this characterization. When a regime is considered a puppet, its acts are generally treated as legally void with respect to the previously effective state, unless they are actually acts of the occupying power or are later ratified by a legitimate effective government.
Franz Michael viewed that a foreign government's use of a puppet government "as a method of violating the international status" of a specific state is "perhaps less shocking" to the public eye than total annexation. Puppet governments thus can be used more easily to "develop and extend" the prospects offered by military occupation. Michael viewed this as a "problem" in international relations.
Terminology The term is a metaphor which compares a state or government to a puppet controlled by a puppeteer with strings. The first recorded use of the term "puppet government" was in 1884, in reference to the Khedivate of Egypt.
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.
Likewise a puppet ruler is a person who holds a title of political authority, but is under the rule of outside persons or groups. Incumbent rulers may rely on puppet rulers to circumvent term limits. José Gil Fortoul, Victorino Márquez Bustillos and Juan Bautista Pérez were three presidents of early-20th-century Venezuela who were widely considered puppet rulers under Juan Vicente Gómez's de facto rule.
Nineteenth-century examples French revolutionary and Napoleon/Napoleonic clients
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.
List of Sister Republics Subalpine Republic (1800–1802) Piedmontese Republic (1798–1799) Republic of Alba (1796) Parthenopaean Republic (1799) Republic of Pescara (1799) Roman Republic (1798–1799) Anconine Republic (1797–1798) Tiberina Republic (1798–1799) Ligurian Republic (1797–1805) Republic of Lucca (1799), (1800–1805) Italian Republic (1802–1805) Cisalpine Republic (1797–1802) Cispadane Republic (1796–1797) Bolognese Republic (1796) Transpadane Republic (1796–1797) Republic of Crema (1797) Republic of Bergamo (1797) Republic of Brescia (1797) Provisional Municipality of Venice (1797–1798) Republic of Bouillon (1794–1795) Republic of Liège (1789–1791) Rauracian Republic (1792–1793) Lémanique Republic (1798) Republic of Mainz (1793) Batavian Republic (1795–1806) Cisrhenian Republic (1797) Irish Republic (1798) Helvetic Republic (1798–1803) Altamura (1799) Astese Republic (1797) (1796) Rhodanic Republic (1802–1810)
British Empire
In 1896, Britain established a state in Zanzibar.
Early twentieth-century examples
Established by the German Empire Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918) – The Central Powers' forces occupied Russian Congress Poland in 1915 and in 1916, Germany and Austria-Hungary created a Polish monarchy to exploit the occupied territories in an easier way and mobilise the Poles against the Russians (see Polish Legions). In 1918 the state became independent and formed the backbone of the new internationally recognised Second Polish Republic. Kingdom of Lithuania (1918) – After Russia's defeat and the territorial cessions of the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Germans established a Lithuanian kingdom. However, it became an independent republic with Germany's defeat. Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1918) – In 1915, German forces occupied the Russian Courland Governorate and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended the war in the east, so the local ethnic Baltic Germans established a duchy under the German crown in that part of Ober Ost, with a common return of civil administration in favour of the military. This state was swiftly merged with the Baltic State Duchy and the German-occupied territories of the Russian Empire in Livonia and Estonia, into a multi-ethnic United Baltic Duchy.
By others Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus and Provisional Government of Western Thrace were provisional republics established by the Turkish minorities of Thrace and Caucasia after the Ottoman Empire lost its lands in these regions. Both were the products of the Ottoman Intelligence agency, Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa, in terms of organisational structure and organisers, and they had remarkably common features. See translated abstract on page 125. Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic (1918) – The state, remotely controlled by the Russian Soviet Republic, was founded by Joseph Stalin's close friend Fyodor Sergeyev. However, the DKRR was disliked by Vladimir Lenin. The capital of the republic was soon overthrown by the Germans again, and after the Soviet Red Army regained control of the territory, the country was dissolved at Lenin's request. Republic of Central Lithuania (1920–1922) – Dependent and fully incorporated by the Second Polish Republic in 1922.
World War II Imperial Japan
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
Azad Hind (1943–1945), officially known as Provisional Government of Free India – established by Indian nationalists in Singapore in October 1943 by Subhas Chandra Bose and was in charge of Indian expatriates and military personnel in Japanese Southeast Asia. It had nominal sovereignty over Axis controlled Indian territories and would enjoy the prospective control of Indian territory to be captured in a future invasion of British India. Of the territory of post-independence India, the government took charge of Kohima (after it fell to the Japanese-INA offensive), parts of Manipur that fell to both the Japanese 15th Army and the INA, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The government had diplomatic relationships with eleven countries including Germany, Italy, Japan, Philippines, and the Soviet Union. It was headed by Subhas Chandra Bose, who was the Head of the State and Prime Minister, who was also the Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army. The government had its own cabinet and banks. State of Burma (1942–1945) – Head of State: Ba Maw Second Philippine Republic (1943–1945) – Headed by Jose P. Laurel as President Empire of Vietnam (1945) – Emperor Bảo Đại's regime with Trần Trọng Kim as Prime Minister after proclaiming independence from France Kingdom of Kampuchea (1945) – King Norodom Sihanouk's regime with Son Ngoc Thanh as Prime Minister after proclaiming independence from France Kingdom of Luang Prabang (1945) – King Sisavang Vong's regime with Prince Phetsarath as Prime Minister after proclaiming independence from France
In China Manchukuo (1932–1945) – Set up in Manchuria under the leadership of the last Chinese Emperor, PuyiJowett, 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. North Shanxi Autonomous Government (1937–1939) – Formed in northern Shanxi with its capital at Datong on October 15, 1937. The state was then merged into Mengjiang along with the South Chahar Autonomous Government and the Mongol United Autonomous Government. South Chahar Autonomous Government (1937–1939) – Formed in South Chahar with its capital at Kalgan (modern day Zhangjiakou) on September 4, 1937. The state was merged with the North Shanxi Autonomous Government as well as the Mongol United Autonomous Government to create Mengjiang. Mongol Military Government (1936–1937) and Mongol United Autonomous Government (1937–1939) – Established in Inner Mongolia as puppet states with local collaborators. This state formed the large basis of what was to become Mengjiang. Mengjiang (1936–1945) – Set up in Inner Mongolia on May 12, 1936, as the Mongol Military Government was renamed in October 1937 as the Mongol United Autonomous Government. On September 1, 1939, the predominantly Han Chinese governments of the South Chahar and North Shanxi Autonomous Governments were merged with the Mongol Autonomous Government, creating the new Mengjiang United Autonomous Government. All of these were headed by De Wang.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. East Hebei Autonomous Council (1935–1938) – A state in northeast China Great Way (Dadao) Government (1937–1938) – A short-lived regime based in Shanghai. This provisional government was established as a preliminary collaboration state as the Japanese took control of all of Shanghai and advanced towards Nanjing. This was then merged with the Reformed Government of China as well as the Provisional Government of China into the Reorganised Nationalist Government of the Republic of China under the leadership of Wang Jingwei. Reformed Government of the Republic of China (1938–1940) – First regime established in Nanjing after the Battle of Nanjing. Later fused into the Provisional Government of China Provisional Government of China (1937–1940) – Incorporated into the Nanjing Nationalist Government on March 30, 1940Jowett, 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.