What is the difference between a satellite nation and a protectorate?

Question

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Answer 1

The word 'satellite' was used mainly about the countries of Eastern Europe under communist rule. They were independent nations but did exactly what Russia told them. A 'protectorate' was a country put under the 'care' of one of the leading countries by the League of Nations after WWI. Iraq was a UK protectorate (which should had taught our politicians about how stupid it was to get embroiled there again - but Bliar knew nothing about history). There were also protectorates in the former colonies of German East Africa. Basically, the stronger state offers to give defence aid against third parties in exchange for specified obligations. This is a very simple description of what is, in international law, a quite involved matter and I would advise a read of the wikipedia page on the question:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectorate

or indeed the Columbia Encyclopaedia:-
http://www.bartleby.com/65/pr/Protecto.html