Informal empire

Did You Know?

• The city-state of Athens exerted control over the Delian League through an informal empire in the 5th century BCE.
• Chartered companies such as the Muscovy Company, the Levant Company, the East India Company, and the Hudson's Bay Company were forerunners to the concept of informal empire.
• French interventions in Mexico in 1838 and 1861 have been described as forms of informal empire, though less extensive than those of other European powers.

United Kingdom

The concept of informal empire is most commonly associated with the British Empire, describing British interests in regions not formally under British control, such as Qing China and South America. Britain's informal empire relied on extraterritoriality, a trade system heavily favouring Britain, and interventionist tools like military force and diplomatic pressure. Unequal treaties with China led to concessions like the Shanghai International Settlement, but this system broke down after China's Warlord Era. In China, the informal empire was established after the Opium Wars and maintained through force and diplomacy; by the 1890s, control shifted toward more formal concessions and spheres of influence, which were returned during the Second World War. In South America, local governments were often willing partners in extending British commercial influence, though military action was used against protectionist policies.

United States

U.S. foreign policy from the late 19th century onward, under presidents including Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and New Deal leaders, has been described as informal empire. It involved clientelistic relationships with elites, veto power over issues affecting U.S. interests, and use of military threats, regime change, or multilateral pressure. The policy aimed to create an international economic order benefiting U.S. capitalists through export markets and investment, though the commitment to open economy was selective. Examples include the Philippines, Vietnam, Iraq, and Iran. Secretary of State William Bryan said it 'opened the doors of all the weaker countries to an invasion of American capital and American enterprise.' Relationships with raw-material suppliers became highly imbalanced, with wealth repatriated to the U.S. and often benefiting authoritarian pro-American rulers at the expense of local development.

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire under the Romanovs developed an informal empire alongside its formal expansion, notably in Qajar Iran and through concessions in China. After the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, Russia gained territorial domination in Iran and maintained influence for nearly a century through a policy of informal support for the weakened Qajar dynasty, while pressuring Turkestan. Russian diplomats became powerbrokers, and the monarchy depended on British and Russian loans. The 1879 establishment of the Cossack Brigade by Russian officers gave influence over the Qajar army, and by the 1890s Russian tutors, doctors, and officers were prominent at the Shah's court. Russia and Britain had competing investments in Iran's industrialization, but until 1907 the Great Game rivalry blocked railroad construction. The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 ended this rivalry: Russia recognized southern Iran and Afghanistan as British spheres, Britain recognized northern Iran and Central Asia as Russian spheres, and Tibet was neutral with special privileges for both. In China, Russia acquired the Liaodong Peninsula and the Chinese Eastern Railway, but most concessions were lost after the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, becoming part of Japan's informal empire.

Soviet Union

Scholars have argued that the Soviet Union functioned as an empire, particularly an informal one over Warsaw Pact states that were nominally independent but subject to Soviet military pressure. This informal arrangement relied on financial subsidies from Moscow and connections between communist parties. By 1980, according to Dmitri Trenin, the Soviet Union maintained both formal and informal empires. The informal empire involved economic investments, military occupation, and covert operations in allied countries, with research focusing on Soviet influence in East Germany and 1930s Xinjiang. Following the 1929 Sino-Soviet conflict, Moscow regained control of the Chinese Eastern Railway, a former Russian imperial concession, which it kept until 1952. During the 1920s, the Soviet empire included satellite states like Mongolia and Tannu Tuva, the latter later annexed. The Comintern’s sway over Asian communist parties was viewed as a possible means to expand this informal empire.