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A suzerain (, from Old French sus "above" + soverain "supreme, chief") is a person, state or polity who has supremacy and dominant influence over the foreign policy and economic relations of another subordinate party or polity, but allows internal autonomy to that subordinate. Where the subordinate polity is called a vassal, vassal state or tributary state, the dominant party is called the suzerain. The rights and obligations of a vassal are called vassalage, and the rights and obligations of a suzerain are called suzerainty.
Suzerainty differs from sovereignty in that the dominant power does not exercise governance over the vassals, allowing tributary states to be technically self-rule but enjoy only limited independence. Although the situation has existed in a number of historical , it is considered difficult to reconcile with 20th- or 21st-century concepts of international law, in which sovereignty is a binary concept, which either exists or does not. While a sovereign state can agree by treaty to become a protectorate of a stronger power, modern international law does not recognise any way of making this relationship compulsory on the weaker power. Suzerainty is a practical, de facto situation, rather than a legal, de jure one.
Current examples include Bhutan and India. India is responsible for military training, arms supplies, and the air defense of Bhutan.
The unification of China under the Qin dynasty in 221 BC started the two millennia-long Imperial China of Chinese history, and the Emperor became the supreme leader of a unitary state China. Although the Qin dynasty was short-lived and fell to remnant rebels of the states it once conquered soon after the death of the First Emperor, the subsequent Han dynasty (whose founding emperor Liu Bang and chancellors Xiao He and Cao Shen were all former of the Qin bureaucracy) inherited Qin's concept of Chinese uniformity and, through diplomatic and such as the Silk Road and Tea Horse Road, became a prosperous empire with international influence far beyond the boundaries of China proper. The prominence of the Han empire, especially after defeating the Xiongnu Empire, Dayuan and Wiman Gojoseon, had led to fealty and from numerous states in the surrounding Central Asia (then known as the Western Regions), Northeast Asia (mainly Buyeo and the Jin Koreans) and Southeast Asia (pre-Zhao Jiande Nanyue and early Funan), to whom the Chinese emperors granted titles of kingship, as evidenced by King of Na gold seal of Yayoi period Japan (then known as Wa) and the similar gold seal of Dian kingdom. Similarly, the dominance of the early Tang dynasty, especially after its annihilation of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate in 630 AD and Xueyantuo in 646 AD, earned Emperor Taizong the nickname of Khan of Heaven (天可汗 tiān kěhán) by various Göktürk nomads of Inner Asia subdued during his reign.
The tributary or Chaogong (朝貢) system under the Chinese sphere of influence (particularly within the Sinosphere) was a loose network of international and trade relations focused on China's prestige as the undisputed regional power in East Asia, and other states in the surrounding Central, Northeast, Southeast and regions also facilitated their trade and foreign relations by acknowledging China's primacy role in the Far East. It involved multiple relationships of trade, military force, diplomacy and ritual. The other states had to send a tributary envoy to China on schedule, who would kowtow to the Chinese emperors as a form of submission and acknowledgement of Chinese supremacy and precedence, and the Chinese emperors often granted gifts, wealth, blessings and favorable policy promises in return. The other countries followed China's formal ritual in order to keep the peace with the more powerful neighbor and be eligible for diplomatic or military help under certain conditions. Political actors within the tributary system were largely autonomous and in almost all cases virtually independent.
The term "tribute system" as applied to China is a Western invention. There was no equivalent term in the Chinese lexicon to describe what would be considered the "tribute system" today, nor was it envisioned as an institution or system. John King Fairbank and Teng Ssu-yu created the "tribute system" theory in a series of articles in the early 1940s to describe "a set of ideas and practices developed and perpetuated by the rulers of China over many centuries." The Fairbank model presents the tribute system as an extension of the hierarchic and nonegalitarian Confucian social order. The more Confucian the actors, the more likely they were to participate in the tributary system.
In practice the behaviours which were collectively seen as a tributary system, involving tribute and gift exchange in return for symbolic subordination, were only formalized during the early years of the Ming dynasty due to Zheng He's treasure voyages. Tributary members were virtually autonomous and carried out their own agendas despite paying tribute; this was the case with Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, and Vietnam. Chinese influence on tributary states was almost always non-interventionist in nature and tributary states "normally could expect no military assistance from Chinese armies should they be invaded".
The Chinese tributary system was upended in the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of spreading Western colonialism and the rise of Imperial Japan after the Meiji Restoration. Previously, the Portuguese conquest of Malacca and Portuguese Macau, the Spanish Empire colonization of the Philippines and the Dutch incursions to the Malay Archipelago had already eroded the Chinese prestige in the Nanyang region (roughly present-day Southeast Asia as well as New Guinea). During the late Qing dynasty, the Chinese tributary system was gradually destroyed with Britain annexing Hong Kong, Lower Burma and Upper Myanmar following the Opium Wars and Anglo-Burmese Wars; the France conquering Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam into French Indochina, and Japan annexing Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan island and Korea after the Ryukyu Disposition and First Sino-Japanese War. The downward spiral of the Qing dynasty over the second half of the 19th century also caused Mainland China to become semi-colonized, with many of its coastal regions turning into foreign concessions that lasted through the First and Second World Wars. Most of the foreign colonies were returned back to Chinese control before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, with the last three concession territories being returned in by the Soviets in 1952, by the British in 1997 and by the Portuguese in 1999.
Since colonial times, Britain had regarded Tibet as being under Chinese suzerainty, but in 2008 the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called that word an "anachronism" in a statement, and recognized Tibet as sovereign part of China.
Each treaty would typically begin with an "Identification" of the Suzerain, followed by an historical prologue cataloguing the relationship between the two groups "with emphasis on the benevolent actions of the suzerain towards the vassal". Following the historical prologue came the stipulation. This included tributes, obligations and other forms of subordination that would be imposed on the Israelites. According to the Hittite form, after the stipulations were offered to the vassal, it was necessary to include a request to have copies of the treaty that would be read throughout the kingdom periodically. The treaty would have divine and earthly witnesses purporting the treaty's validity, trustworthiness, and efficacy. This also tied into the blessings that would come from following the treaty and the curses from breaching it. For disobedience, curses would be given to those who had not remained steadfast in carrying out the stipulations of the treaty.
The principle of paramountcy was explicitly stated in a letter by Lord Reading to the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, in 1926, "The sovereignty of the British Crown is supreme in India and therefore no ruler of an Indian State can justifiably claim to negotiate with the British Government on an equal footing." This meant that the Indian states were crown dependencies or of the British Indian government. They could not make war or have any direct dealings with foreign states. Neither did they enjoy full internal autonomy. The British government could and did interfere in their internal affairs if the imperial interests were involved or if it proved necessary in the interest of so-stated "good governance". In some cases, the British government also deposed these Indian princes.
According to historians Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal the system of paramountcy was a system of limited sovereignty only in appearance. In reality, it was a system of recruitment of a reliable base of support for the imperial state. The support of the Imperial State obviated the need for the rulers to seek legitimacy through patronage and dialogue with their populations. Through their direct as well as indirect rule through the princes, the colonial state turned the population of India into 'subjects' rather than citizens.
The Government of India Act 1935 envisaged that India would be a federation of autonomous provinces balanced by Indian princely states. This plan never came to fruition. The political conditions were oppressive in several princely states giving rise to political movements. Under pressure from Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian National Congress resolved not to interfere directly but called on the princes to increase civil liberties and reduce their own privileges.
With the impending independence of India in 1947, the Governor-General Lord Mountbatten announced that the British paramountcy over Indian states would come to an end. The states were advised to accede to one of the new dominions, India or Pakistan. An Instrument of Accession was devised for this purpose. The Congress leaders agreed to the plan on the condition that Mountbatten ensure that the majority of the states within the Indian territory accede to India. Under pressure from the governor-general, all the Indian states acceded to India save two, Junagadh State and Hyderabad State.
After a while, the British Raj took over the administration of those islands for non-payment of arrears. These islands were attached to the Malabar district of the Madras Presidency. In 1956, the States Reorganisation Act separated these islands from the mainland administrative units, forming a new union territory by combining all the islands.
In Season 7 of Supernatural, Castiel briefly attains god-like powers and takes direct control of Heaven. He then meets with the King of Hell, Crowley, to propose an arrangement in which Crowley maintains control over Hell's internal affairs but pledges allegiance to Castiel. He also requires Crowley to give him control over the distribution of souls between Heaven and Hell, as souls are a source of supernatural power that Castiel needs to maintain his dominance. Reasoning that he has no choice, Crowley promptly agrees to this arrangement.
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