What are the advantages of making a puppet state?

Specifically: Why does it reduce overstretch problems that the USSR puppetized the states of Eastern Europe instead of governing them on their own?
 

Cook

Banned
Specifically: Why does it reduce overstretch problems that the USSR puppetized the states of Eastern Europe instead of governing them on their own?
Surly it is self-evident that if you can find a local who is willing to run the country the way you want him to, including doing all the day to day suppression of dissidents, crushing of resistance and ensuring quotas of raw materials and goods are sent off to the Soviet Union, it is better than having to send your own people in to do the same? Especially when they’ll generally have a better understanding of the country, and the best way to extract what you want from it.
 
I thought they'd be fairly obvious:

-Prevents/lessens the need for occupation

-Gives the extension of your empire/influence a form of legitimacy

-Helps spread your values/ideology over time lessening the need for overt puppetisation.
 
I thought they'd be fairly obvious:

-Prevents/lessens the need for occupation

-Gives the extension of your empire/influence a form of legitimacy

-Helps spread your values/ideology over time lessening the need for overt puppetisation.

Also more votes at UN and agents that aren't traced directly back to you. Not that anyone is fooled but...
 
Also some propaganda value (not much) - See, we did not not conquer them, they are totally independent and they willingly accept our political system. We're not some imperialists or colonialists.
 
Plus the people of the puppetized state can delude themselves that they are at least nominally independent, not like their less lucky neighbors (i.e. baltics in the USSR example)

Oh, and direct annexation could also annoy those who would otherwise willingly collaborate.
 
The overwhelming majority of humans prefer to be oppressed by people of the same ethnic group, same religion, and same language group. It's just the way we're wired. In a lot of cases we apparently prefer bad government by the same 'big 3' to mediocre or good government where the 'big 3' aren't the same.
 
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