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Puppet state
A puppet state is a country that is officially independent, but not in practice. Puppet governments are usually kept in power by military force provided by an occupying country. Puppet state is a biased term. It is used to criticize the government of the alleged puppet state.
Examples
Examples of puppet states before World War II are:
- Far Eastern Republic (puppet state of the Soviet Union).
- Kingdom of Holland (puppet state of the First French Empire)
- Kingdom of Poland (1916-1918) (puppet state of the German Empire)
- Panama (puppet state of the United States)
- Grand Duchy of Warsaw (puppet state of the First French Empire)
- Emirate of Mongda) (puppet state of the Ottoman Empire)
World War II
In World War II the Axis countries created some puppet states, like:
- Kingdom of Albania (1939-1943, puppet state of Italy)
- Hungarian State of National Unity (1944-1945, puppet state of Nazi Germany)[1]
- Manchukuo (1932-1945, puppet state of the Empire of Japan)
- Independent State of Croatia (1941- 1945, puppet state of Italy and Nazi Germany)
- Slovak Republic (1939-1945, puppet state of Nazi Germany)
- Free State of Burma (1943-1945, puppet state of the Empire of Japan)
After Italy surrendered in World War II the Italian Social Republic was a puppet state created by Germany.
Cold War
During the Cold War (1945-1989) these Eastern European countries were puppet states of the Soviet Union:
- People's Republic of Bulgaria (Soviet Union)
- Czechoslovak Socialist
Republic (Soviet Union)
- East Germany (Soviet Union)
- Hungarian People's Republic (Soviet Union)
- Socialist Republic of Romania (Soviet Union)
- Polish People's Republic (Soviet Union)
- Democratic Republic of Albania (Soviet Union)
- Mongolian People's Republic (Soviet Union)
- North Korea (Soviet Union) , (until 1976)
Next are economic puppets:
- Austria (mostly in the north east including Vienna and the old Soviet occupation zone until 1955) (Soviet Union)
In some of these countries the people overthrew the government, but each time they did that (before 1989) the Soviet Union and some of its other puppet states invaded and put the old government back in power. The Soviet Union had also some puppet states outside Europe, such as Mongolia. Some of these countries had more independence from the Soviet Union. For example, the Romanian government sided against the Soviets when they went into Czechoslovakia.
The United States also had some puppet states during the Cold War:
- Cuba (United States) , (before 1959)
- Guatemala (United States) , (until 1991)
- South Korea (United States) , (Until 1976)
- Republic of Vietnam aka South Vietnam (United States)
- West Germany (United States)
- North Yemen (United States)
Now
There are these countries that can be called puppet states now:
- Donetsk People’s Republic (puppet state of Russia)
- Luhansk People’s Republic (puppet state of Russia)
- Northern Cyprus (puppet state of Turkey)
- South Ossetia (puppet state of Russia)
- Abkhazia (puppet state of Russia)
- Transnistria (puppet state of Russia)
