U.S. grants nations "Protectorate" status

You know how the United States has a lot of various territories that aren't states, such as "territories" and "commonwealths?" Well, I was thinking of the U.S. granting a looser, yet officially-defined, status to nations in the 19th century. Like, say Yucatan. Or Liberia. And perhaps because there was no way the South would have allowed a black-majority state in, President Grant could have granted protectorate status to the Dominican Republic instead of annexing it in most AHs.
 
You know how the United States has a lot of various territories that aren't states, such as "territories" and "commonwealths?" Well, I was thinking of the U.S. granting a looser, yet officially-defined, status to nations in the 19th century. Like, say Yucatan. Or Liberia. And perhaps because there was no way the South would have allowed a black-majority state in, President Grant could have granted protectorate status to the Dominican Republic instead of annexing it in most AHs.

Well, arguably under the Monroe Doctrine and until the 1950's, virtually all of Latin America not held by other European states was considered effectively a US protectorate, and was treated as such by Great Britain and most other western nations. This was especially true of the smaller nations. It was understood the US was the principle guarantor of their independence, that excessive european involvement in these nations could be considered a causus belli by the USA, and that US intervention in these nations was considered a legitimate action by a big power acting it its recognized sphere of influenced. To the extent this right of intervention was established by treaty or in other ways formalized such as it was with Cuba until the 1930's (and I suspect with respect to Panama and the Canal Zone as well), these nations were protectorates.

Yucatan would be an interesting situation as it was never officially recognized as independent by Mexico. Extending a US protectorate over Yucatan would have probably involved a war with Mexico

Liberia also was, for all intents and purposes a US protectorate in Africa.

Depending on which AH you fancy for the late 19th and early-mid 20th century, it would not be implausible to see formal US protectorates over the entire caribbean, the Bahamas, Iceland, Greenland, some Persian Gulf States, and even Japan or Eire
 
Then again, would granting nations a formal protectorate status, making yourself a suzerain, be too much for Americans to want? And the outcry from Europe and Latin America would certainly resound as well.
 
So, anyone think that protectorate status is a viable thing for the U.S. to declare, or is that too much like vassalizing a country, and being too openly imperialistic for Americans pre-Spanish-American War to tolerate? It's one thing to Manifest Destiny, it's another declaring yourself guaranteeing other sovereign states, as weak as they might be. Protectorates are something one establishes in diplomatic treaties to tell other nations to step off, it's quite another to treat it as an administrative unit like you actually own the place.

This is an old thread but I started it.
 
Ah wait, I think this exists in OTL:


Associated states[edit]​

The U.S. State Department also uses the term insular area to refer not only to territories under the sovereignty of the United States, but also those independent nations that have signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States. While these nations participate in many otherwise domestic programs, and full responsibility for their military defense rests with the United States, they are legally distinct from the United States and their inhabitants are neither U.S. citizens nor nationals.[1]

...

Three sovereign UN member states which were all formerly in the U.S. administered United Nations Trust Territory and are currently in free association with the U.S. The U.S. provides national defense, funding, and access to social services.


The compact came into being as an extension of the US–UN territorial trusteeship agreement, which obliged the federal government of the United States "to promote the development of the people of the Trust Territory toward self-government or independence as appropriate to the particular circumstances of the Trust Territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned".[1] Under the compact, the US federal government provides guaranteed financial assistance over a 15-year period administered through its Office of Insular Affairs in exchange for full international defense authority and responsibilities.

Well, I suppose a protectorate would essentially be this but born out of reasons other than decolonization under an international body.
 
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