Protectorate

Government by a protector. The period of his rule. Specially so used with reference to the period of English history during which Oliver and Richard Cromwell held the title of "Lord Protector." In International Law. A relation assumed by a strong nation toward a weak one, whereby the former protects the latter from hostile invasion or dictation, and interferes more or less in its domestic concerns. Cent. Diet. Such, for example, is the supervision assumed jointly by the United States, Germany, and Great Britain over Samoa. See Davis, Int. Law, 247.