History Main / PuppetState

** This is most blatant in WashingtonDC. Congress can and frequently does override the city's locally elected government for its own benefit.

The nation trying to break away and regain true independence may be a plot point. Normally part of TheEmpire, or TheFederation. TheKingdom is usually a stand-alone thing.

The nation trying to break away and regain true independence may be a plot point. Normally part of TheEmpire, TheKingdom is usually a stand-alone thing.

* Most countries in ''{{One Piece}}'' are part of a global alliance known as the World Government. There are very harsh penalties for a country's refusal to join, and the ones that do are subject to rules that give the officials almost totally free reign to do as they please.

[[AC: Literature]]

* In ''Tribesmen of {{Gor}}'' most of the desert tribes are vassals of either the Aretai or Kavar tribe. So when outsiders stir up trouble between those two tribes the entire desert is preparing for war with each other.

[[AC: Tabletop Games]]

[[AC: Video Games]]

* Puerto Rico remains this to this day though the bad connotations of the phrase "puppet state" may be less applicable ([[YourMileageMayVary But outside Puerto Rico and the U.S is a very different matter]]). Puerto Rico has local political parties for both statehood and independence, but so far has preferred the present position.

A state under the effective control of another state. Technically independent and in charge of its own affairs, but in reality if it tries anything without the say-so of the government of the nation in charge of it its liable to end up occupied again. An old term for this is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satrapies Satrapies]]. Calling something a vassal state, client state or satellite state is another.

The nation trying to break away and regain true independence may be a plot point. Normally part of TheEmpire, TheKingdom is usually a stand-alone thing.

This isn't always entirely one-sided; one reason for a state becoming a puppet state may have been in exchange for the larger state watching its back in case of war. Whether or not the puppet (or the empire) is happy with this state of affairs is another matter.

!!Examples

[[AC: Anime and Manga]]

* Most countries in ''{{One Piece}}'' are part of a global alliance known as the World Government. There are very harsh penalties for a country's refusal to join, and the ones that do are subject to rules that give the officials almost totally free reign to do as they please.
** Because there are so many countries so spread out, the World Government and the Marines can't possibly watch every single place at every moment, so it's not unheard of for a country to just do things covertly or secretly own contraband.

[[AC: Literature]]

* In ''Tribesmen of {{Gor}}'' most of the desert tribes are vassals of either the Aretai or Kavar tribe. So when outsiders stir up trouble between those two tribes the entire desert is preparing for war with each other.
* In ''FloraSegunda'', the main characters' country, Califa, is a vassal state of the Huitzil empire, because it was pretty much that or be conquered entirely. Many people are still less than happy about it, though.

[[AC: Tabletop Games]]

* Many states in {{Traveller}} are like this.
** In the context of the Traveller universe, any multi-system polity must be a collection of PuppetState s even though sometimes the central government is created by the substates rather then the reverse.

[[AC: Video Games]]

* TheLastRemnant has this in Athlum, which is a vassal territory of Celapaleis.
* Both UnificationWars and GalacticConquest (sci-fi strategy games in which action points are a regularly renewable resource) feature Vassals, though in reality the "Lord" empire does not exert control over these vassals but instead receives tribute and can send/receive military aid in case of invasion (which is pretty darn frequent).
* Crimea was suzerain to Begnion in FireEmblem Radiant Dawn.
* In one of the {{Expansion Pack}}s for ''{{Civilization}} IV'', any sufficiently powerful civ can make any sufficiently weak civ into their vassal state. If the vassal grows powerful enough (there are exact numbers), it can regain independence.
** On the subject of Civ 5, you can't make an entire civ into one, but when you conquer an enemy city you have the option between annexing it (which simply makes it on of your civ's cities, but generates a lot of unhappiness) or making it a puppet (which gives all the science, culture, and gold it generates to your civ, but you cannot control its production, for either buildings or units).
* A major part of most Paradox games like EuropaUniversalis and HeartsOfIron.
** CrusaderKings probably has the strongest version; the player is able to create vassals by giving the aristocrats in his court titles. Assuming relations are good enough he can force these vassals to raise troops for him and even force to them to surrender their title and land (though this is very likely to result in rebellion instead.)

[[AC: Real Life]]

* A hegemony is when a nation has dominating influence over the foreign and military policy of other countries within its region.
* After the Spanish-American war, newly-independent Cuba became a PuppetState when the United States passed the Platt Amendment which gave Congress the ability to override any Cuban foreign policy decision.

* The satellite states of the Soviet Union.
* Some of the nations conquered by the Nazis during WorldWarII, such as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy_France Vichy France]] and Norway under the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling_regime Quisling regime]].

* The Phillipine Islands were a fairly successful example of this despite the brutal Pacification Campaigns. This seems to have been because of a string of highly successful proconsuls (including General [=MacArthur=] who to some degree [[GoingNative went native]]). The locals fought very bravely on the US side during WorldWarII because they believed-in this case correctly-the promise of future independence.

* Puerto Rico remains this to this day though the bad connotations of the phrase "puppet state" may be less applicable ([[YourMileageMayVary But outside Puerto Rico and the U.S is a very different matter]]). Puerto Rico has local political parties for both statehood and independence, but so far has preferred the present position.

* The Phillipine Islands were a fairly successful example of this despite the brutal Pacification Campaigns. This seems to have been because of a string of highly successful proconsuls(including General MacArthur who to some degree [[GoingNative went native]] ) . The locals fought very bravely on the US side during WorldWarII because they believed-in this case correctly-the promise of future independence.

** This is most blatant in WashingtonDC. Congress can and frequently does override the city's locally elected government for its own benefit.

If the state is nominally democratic or republican and holds elections, and those are controlled by the parent state, see CorruptPoliticians.

* In ''[[Literature/TenebranTrilogy A Dark Winter]]'' by DaveLuckett, the protagonist's homeland has become a puppet state of TheEmpire. A significant plot point concerns the revelation of how far another character is prepared to go secure its independence.

* In ''A Dark Winter'' by DaveLuckett, the protagonist's homeland has become a puppet state of TheEmpire. A significant plot point concerns the revelation of how far another character is prepared to go secure its independence.

* In ''A Dark Winter'' by Dave Luckett, the protagonist's homeland has become a puppet state of TheEmpire. A significant plot point concerns the revelation of how far another character is prepared to go secure its independence.

* Puerto Rico remains this to this day though the bad connotations of the phrase "puppet state" may be less applicable. Puerto Rico has local political parties for both statehood and independence, but so far has preferred the present position.

* ''Scotland'' technically ended up briefly being a vassal state of England when John Baliol was persuaded to swear fealty to Edward I. John Baliol quickly reneged on this however, and Edward squandered any moral claim he might have had in the situation with a show of ''stunning'' brutality during his march north, nearly destroying Berwick upon Tweed, once considered a second Alexandria and reduced by 8,000 people after Edward was through with it to the status of a minor sea-port. Although his hold on southern and midland Scotland lasted up until his death despite a considerable struggle with William Wallace, the sheer hatred of the English stirred up in Scotland went a long way towards being the reason Edwards heirs ultimately lost the country.

* For that matter, every US State is theoretically this. At some times in history it has been feared that the Federal government would reduce them to provinces, and at other times, it was feared that the states had [[AmericanCivilWar unusual powers]]. On the whole, during isolationist periods in US history the state governments prevailed, and during periods of more active foreign policy the Fed prevailed.

** In the case of Costa Rica, the influence was so deep that many Costa Ricans uses '''American names or last names''' despise being a Spanish-speaking country.

* CrusaderKings probably has the strongest version; the player is able to create vassals by giving the aristocrats in his court titles. Assuming relations are good enough he can force these vassals to raise troops for him and even force to them to surrender their title and land (though this is very likely to result in rebellion instead.)

* The Phillipine Islands were a fairly successful example of this despite the brutal Pacification Campaigns. This seems to have
been because of a string of highly successful proconsuls(including General MacArthur who to some degree [[GoingNative went native]] ) . The locals fought very bravely on the US side during WorldWarII because they believed-in this case correctly-the promise of future independence.

* The Indian princely states of British India.

A state under the effective control of another state. Technically independent and in charge of its own affairs, but in reality if it tries anything without the say-so of the government of the nation in charge of it its liable to end up occupied again. An old term for this is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satrapies Satrapies]]. Calling something a vassal state or satellite state is another.

* A hegemony is when a nation has undue influence over the affairs of other countries within its region.

* Most of the Central American {{Banana Republic}}s were made that way by the machinations of the United States at the behest of the MegaCorp United Fruit Company.

* [[AC: Literature]]

Because there are so many countries so spread out, the World Government and the Marines can't possibly watch every single place at every moment, so it's not unheard of for a country to just do things covertly or secretly own contraband.

A state under the effective control of another state. Technically independent and in charge of its own affairs, but in reality if it tries anything without the say-so of the government of the nation in charge of it its liable to end up occupied again. An old term for this is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satrapies Satrapies]]. Calling something a vassal state or satelite state is another.

* ''Scotland'' technically ended up briefly being a vassal state of England when John Baliol was persuaded to swear fealty to Edward I. John Baliol quickly reneged on this however, and Edward squandered any moral claim he might have had in the situation with a show of ''stunning'' brutality during his march north, nearly destroying Berwick upon Tweed, once considered a second Alexandria and reduced by 8,000 people after Edward was through with it to the status of a minor sea-port. Although his hold on southern and midland Scotland lasted up until his death despite a considerable struggle with William Wallace, the sheer hatred of the English stirred up in Scotland went a long way towards being the reason Edwards heirs ultimately lost the country.

A state under the effective control of another state. Technically independent and in charge of its own affairs, but in reality if it tries anything without the say-so of the government of the nation in charge of it its liable to end up occupied again. An old term for this is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satrapies Satrapies]]. Calling something a vassal state is another.