Suzerainty

Suzerainty is a relationship in which one state or other polity rule the foreign policy as well as relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to realize internal autonomy. The dominant state is called the "suzerain".

Suzerainty differs from sovereignty in that the tributary state is technically independent, but enjoys only limited self-rule. Although the situation has existed in a number of historical empires, it is considered difficult to reconcile with 20th- or 21st-century impression 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, contemporary international law does non recognise all way of making this relationship compulsory on the weaker power. Suzerainty is a practical, de facto situation, rather than a legal, de jure one.

South African Republic

After the First Boer War 1880–81, the South African Republic was granted its independence, albeit under British suzerainty. During the Second Boer War 1899–1902, the South African Republic was annexed as the Transvaal Colony, which existed until 1910, when it became the Province of Transvaal in the Union of South Africa.