Suzerainty


A suzerain 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 centralized governance over the vassals, allowing tributary states to be technically self-ruling but enjoy only limited independence. Although the situation has existed in a number of historical empires, 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.

China

In early Ancient China, the various self-ruling regional polities often align under the sphere of influence of a confederacy, of which the largest, most powerful state typically became the de jure dynastic leader. During the era of the mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors dynastic and the subsequent theocratic Xia and Shang dynasties, such a suzerain state would assume the "divine blessings" of Mandate of Heaven and became known as an overlord, who claimed superiority over numerous submitted but autonomous states known as fangguo. During the Zhou dynasty, most of the states were not indigenously established, but rather were aristocrat polities appointed by the ruling Ji royal family via enfeoffment to extended relatives and loyal allies who contributed to the overthrow of the Shang dynasty. Although China then was largely a federacy where the ruling Zhou kings only had limited sovereignty over the affairs of their vassal states, the term "Son of Heaven" has since become the title of all Chinese sovereigns of the subsequent dynasties until the Xinhai Revolution in 1912, with Classic of Poetry even claiming the king's suzerainty over all lands under Heaven:
The unification of China under the Qin dynasty in 221 BC started the two millennia-long Imperial era of Chinese history, and the Emperor became the supreme leader of a unitary 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 inherited Qin's concept of Chinese uniformity and, through diplomatic power projections and trade routes 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 tributes from numerous states in the surrounding Central Asia, Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, to whom the Chinese emperors granted titles of kingship, as evidenced by King of Na gold seal of Yayoi period Japan and the similar gold seal of Dian. 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 by various Göktürk nomads of Inner Asia subdued during his reign.
The tributary or Chaogong system under the Chinese sphere of influence 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 South Asian 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 settlement of Macau, the Spanish colonization of the Philippines and the Dutch incursions to the Malay Archipelago had already eroded the Chinese prestige in the Nanyang region. During the late Qing dynasty, the Chinese tributary system was gradually destroyed with Britain annexing Hong Kong, Lower and Upper Burma following the Opium Wars and Anglo-Burmese Wars; the France conquering Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam into Indochina, and Japan annexing Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan 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 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.

Ancient Israel and Near East

Suzerainty treaties and similar covenants and agreements between Middle Eastern states were quite prevalent during the pre-monarchic and monarchy periods in Ancient Israel. The Hittites, Egyptians, and Assyrians had been suzerains to the Israelites and other tribal kingdoms of the Levant from 1200 to 600 BC. The structure of Jewish covenant law was similar to the Hittite form of suzerain.
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.

Hittite suzerainty treaty form

Below is a form of a Hittite suzerainty treaty.
  • Preamble: Identifies the parties involved in the treaty, the author, the title of the sovereign party, and usually his genealogy. It usually emphasises the greatness of the king or dominant party.
  • Prologue: Lists the deeds already performed by the Suzerain on behalf of the vassal. This section would outline the previous relationship the two groups had up until that point with historical detail and facts that are very beneficial to scholars today, such as scholar George Mendenhall who focuses on this type of covenant as it pertained to the Israelite traditions. The suzerain would document previous events in which they did a favor that benefitted the vassal. The purpose of this would show that the more powerful group was merciful and giving, therefore, the vassal should obey the stipulations that are presented in the treaty. It discusses the relationship between them as a personal relationship instead of a solely political one. Most importantly in this section, the vassal is agreeing to future obedience for the benefits that he received in the past without deserving them.
  • Stipulations: Terms to be upheld by the vassal for the life of the treaty; defines how the vassal is obligated and gives more of the legalities associated with the covenant.
  • Provision for annual public reading: A copy of the treaty was to be read aloud annually in the vassal state for the purpose of renewal and to inform the public of the expectations involved and increase respect for the sovereign party, usually the king.
  • Divine witness to the treaty: These usually include the deities of both the Suzerain and the vassal, but put special emphasis on the deities of the vassal.
  • Blessings if the stipulations of the treaty were upheld and curses if the stipulations were not upheld. These blessings and curses were generally seen to come from the gods instead of punishment by the dominant party for example.
  • Sacrificial meal: Both parties would share a meal to show their participation in the treaty.