what was the difference between a British colony and a British protectorate?

Answer 1

A colony was governed directly from the Colonial Office in London.

A protectorate kept its own rulers (theoretically) but was "protected" by the British. "Protected" usually translates as "do as you are told or face the consequences".

Answer 2

Essentially a protectorate as defined under international law is an political entity such as a feudal (princely) state or tribal region (such as an island, group of islands or other defined area) that agrees by formal treaty to enter an unequal relationship with a larger more powerful state (nation, ie: Britain) which is called the 'protector' which engages (guarantees) to protect it diplomatically or miltarily against third parties (other states) in return for specified obligations in return. The obligations vary depending on the real nature of the relationship. In general terms a protectorate allowed a fair degree of internal political freedom for the native rulers to run the protectorate internally as they saw fit, subject to broad guidelines from the protecting power, in this case it would be Britain.

A colony on the other hand is a territory that is under direct political and military control of the colonising power, in this case Britain. A colony also had no real control over it's internal affairs in most cases, these were directly controlled from London in the case of British colonies via the Colonial Office who directed the top layer of the administration of a colony. Colonies were also subject to 'colonisation" that is where British citizen could live freely in the colony and aquire land and so on, either by grant of the Colonial administration or by purchase.

There's a lot of finer detail that would literally take pages to cover. Wikipedia has some good information on the subject in more detail as do many other sites and textbooks.

Answer 3

Protectorates have been equivalent to secure states in that they have been seen to be foreign places territories over which the British government had political authority (yet no longer sovereignty), yet which lacked a community infrastructure that the British have been arranged to handle as equals; subsequently, a greater direct involvement interior the territory's inner affairs became into taken. Protectorates have been often typical as a potential of controlling British matters in a territory (incredibly than the community inhabitants), or to exclude the impression of a rival ecu ability. The term Protectorate is often perplexed with Mandates. on the tip of WW1, the League of countries assigned various countries mandates to previous Protectorates from the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire. almost all of the former mandates have been sovereign states via 1990.

Answer 4

A "protectorate" is a form of what the Americans call a "protection racket". If you don't pay protection money something bad is gonna happen to you. Colonial subjects had freedoms of the UK, but in a protectorate the governor general could tell the subordinate ruler he was "protecting" to force people to stop complaining about the treatment they were getting.

Answer 5

a Colony is a territory completely under control of another country. That means there is no political autonomy and usually all is governed by a "Governor" nominated by mother land.
A protectorate is a country with its political system, which accept the "protection" and military aid of another country and accept to be influenced in politics by this country. But conserving its political system.
UK had a "Third way" to colonization: "Commonwealth", that means a territory , usually colomized by British people, that keeps yet the King of England as Chief of State, but has a self elected gouvernement. Usually there are also special economical, political and trade agreements between Commonwealth countries and UK.