 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2017) |
| Part of the Politics series |
| Basic forms of government |
|---|
| List of countries by system of government |
 Politics portal |
A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country.[1] The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting a larger object, such as smaller moons revolving around larger planets, and is used mainly to refer to Central and Eastern European member states of the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War,[2] as well as to Mongolia and Tuva between 1924 and 1990,[3] all of which were economically, culturally, and politically dominated by the Soviet Union. While primarily referring to the Soviet-controlled states in Central and Eastern Europe or Asia, in some contexts the term also refers to other countries under Soviet hegemony during the Cold War, such as North Korea (especially in the years surrounding the Korean War of 1950–1953), Cuba (particularly after it joined the Comecon in 1972), and some countries in the American sphere of influence, such as South Vietnam (particularly during the Vietnam War). In Western usage, the term has seldom been applied to states other than those in the Soviet orbit. In Soviet usage, the term applied to states in the orbit of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan, whereas in the West the term to refer to those has typically been client states.[citation needed]
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase satellite state in English back as early as 1916.[citation needed] In times of war or political tension, satellite states sometimes served as buffers between an enemy country and the nation exerting control over the satellites.[4]
- ^ Betts, R. R. (January 1945). "The European Satellite States: Their War Contribution and Present Position". International Affairs. 21 (1): 15–29. doi:10.2307/3018989. JSTOR 3018989.
- ^ "Source: NATO website 2nd Footnote at bottom". nato.int. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
- ^ Sik, Ko Swan (1990). Nationality and International Law in Asian Perspective. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-7923-0876-8.
- ^ Wood, Alan (2005) [1990]. Stalin and Stalinism. Routledge. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-415-30732-1. Retrieved 2009-09-10.