Protectorate In history , the term protectorate has two different meanings . In its earliest inception , which has been adopted by modern international law , it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity . In exchange for this , the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations , which may vary greatly , depending on the real nature of their relationship . However , it retains formal sovereignty , and remains a state under international law . A territory subject to this type of arrangement is also known as a protected state . Rationale . Amical protection . In amical protection , the terms are often very favorable for the protectorate . The political interest of the protector is frequently moral ( a matter of accepted moral obligation , prestige , ideology , internal popularity , dynastic , historical or ethno - cultural ties , etc . ) or countering a rival or enemy power ( e . g . , 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 ; this , however , may not constitute any real sacrifice , as the protectorate may not have been able to have similar use of them without the protector ' s strength . Amical protection was frequently extended by the great power s to other Christian ( generally European ) states and to smaller states that had no significant importance . In the post - 1815 period , non - Christian states ( such as China ' s Qing dynasty ) also provided amical protection towards other much weaker states . Colonial protection of the International Law . Conditions 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 using the pre - existing native state as an agent of indirect rule . Occasionally , a protectorate was established by or exercised by the other 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 which has its own foreign policy and generally its own armed forces . In fact , protectorates were declared despite not being duly entered into by the traditional states supposedly being protected , or only 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 , a logic disrespectful of the theoretical duty of a protector to help maintain its protectorates ' status and integrity . The Berlin agreement of February 26 , 1885 allowed the 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 . 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 logic . Foreign relations . In practice , a protectorate often has direct foreign relations only with the protecting power , so other states must deal with it by approaching the protector . 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 Mandate s 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 . Belgian . During the East African Campaign of World War I , the north - west part of German East Africa , Ruanda - Urundi , was invaded by Belgian and Congolese troops in 1916 and was still occupied by them at the end of the war in 1918 . As part of the Treaty of Versailles the major part of German East Africa was handed over to British control but Ruanda - Urundi , twice the size of Belgium but only about 2 % of the size of the Congo , was confirmed as a Belgian protectorate by a League of Nations Mandate in 1924 , later renewed as a United Nations Trust Territory . The territory was granted independence in 1962 as the separate countries of Rwanda and Burundi , bringing the Belgian colonial empire to an end . British and Commonwealth protectorates . A protectorate , in the British Empire , is a territory which is not formally annexed but in which , by treaty , grant or other lawful means , the Crown has power and jurisdiction . A protectorate differs from a " protected state " . A protected state is a territory under a ruler which enjoys Her Britannic Majesty ' s protection , over whose foreign affairs she exercises control , but in respect of whose internal affairs she does not exercise jurisdiction . When the British took over Cephalonia in 1809 , they proclaimed , " We present ourselves to you , Inhabitants of Cephalonia , not as invaders , with views of conquest , but as allies who hold forth to you the advantages of British protection . " When the British continued to occupy the Ionian Islands after the Napoleonic wars , they did not formally annex the islands , but described them as a protectorate . The islands were constituted by the Treaty of Paris in 1815 as the independent United States of the Ionian Islands under British protection . Similarly , Malta was a British protectorate between the capitulation of the French in 1800 and the Treaty of Paris of 1814 . Other British protectorates followed . In 1894 , Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone ' s government officially announced that Uganda was to become a British Protectorate , where Muslim and Christian strife had attracted international attention . The British administration installed carefully selected local kings under a program of indirect rule through the local oligarchy , creating a network of British - controlled civil service . Most British protectorates were overseen by a Commissioner or a High Commissioner , rather than a Governor . British law makes a distinction between a protectorate and protected state . Constitutionally the two are of similar status where Britain provides controlled defence and external relations . However , a protectorate has an internal government established , while a protected state establishes a form of local internal self - government based on the already existing one . Persons connected with former British protectorates , protected states , mandated or trust territories may remain British Protected Person s if they did not acquire the nationality of the country at independence . The last British protectorate proper was the Solomon Islands , which gained independence in 1978 ; the last British protected state was Brunei , which gained full independence in 1984 . Other cases include : Sub - Saharan Africa . Asterisks denote protectorates which were governed from a colony of the same name . Chinese . Qing Dynasty provided several amical or colonial protection to : French protectorates . Sub - Saharan Africa . The legal regime of " protection " was the formal legal structure under which French colonial forces expanded in Africa between the 1830s and 1900 . Almost every pre - existing state in the area later covered by French West Africa was placed under protectorate status at some point , although direct rule gradually replaced protectorate agreements . Formal ruling structures , or fictive recreations of them , were largely retained as the lowest level authority figure in the French Cercles , with leaders appointed and removed by French officials . German . The German Empire used the word " Schutzgebiet " , literally protectorate , for all of its colonies until they were lost during World War I , regardless of the actual level of government control . Cases involving indirect rule included ; Besides these colonial uses , within Europe Nazi Germany established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( 1939 – 1945 ) in the ethnically - Czech regions of Czechoslovakia . Italian . In Europe : In the colonial empire : Portuguese . Portugal first claimed sovereignty over Cabinda in the February 1885 Treaty of Simulambuco , which gave Cabinda the status of a protectorate of the Portuguese Crown under the request of " the princes and governors of Cabinda " . Through the Treaty of Simulambuco in 1885 between the kings of Portugal and Cabinda ' s princes , a Portuguese protectorate was decreed , reserving rights to the local princes and independent of Angola . United States . Contemporary usage by the United States . Some agencies of the United States government , such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency , still use the term protectorate to refer to insular area s of the United States such as Guam , the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , Puerto Rico and the U . S . Virgin Islands . This was also the case with the Philippines and ( it can be argued via the Platt Amendment ) Cuba at the end of Spanish colonial rule . However , the agency responsible for the administration of those areas , the Office of Insular Affairs ( OIA ) within the United States Department of Interior , uses only the term " insular area " rather than protectorate .