How can a foreign power make great friends with another country without altering its government, people, or autonomy? [closed]

Question

To keep it short and sweet, this is a fictional world with a country called Vertercrank. They're an overseas empire with dangerous neighbors, taking the role of pirates and thieves. Jehor is a country in the area that is different than its neighbors. Vertercrank wants Jehor to become strong allies without replacing candidates, placing propaganda (Or other dirty tactics) favoring Vertercrank. Vertercrank decides to help this weak country to secure some overseas borders. Vertercrank knows Jehor could not resist them in a military operation. Vertercrank doesn't want Jehor to become vengeful. If the two become close allies, they can split the area for mutual benefit.

Im still open to ideas; however, I've got such a great set of ideas that I can almost create a story based on what's said thus far. Once I make this story, I will relay it back with the reality check part of this website or here soon.

Edit: I shouldn't have used the word "Colonize," I imagined Jehor becoming a political and empirical extension of Vertercrank. However, without political scandals (funny enough as it is), this is an impossible task for years or decades, and all it takes is one man to ruin it all. The problem expands into an attempt at the friendship between peoples, and very different people.

Answer 1

Hard working Vertecrank hotties all move to Jehor.

The Jehorites will be very impressed with the invading force - hard working good looking teenagers! It is a sort of cultural exchange except just one way. These well mannered and very easy on the eye Vertecranks are accepted into farms and households everywhere and promptly go to work earning their keep.

The Vertecranks have with this maneuver invaded, supported and grown Jehor. This is met with initial bemusement and subsequent gratitude and enthusiasm of Jehor because these young people are truly awesome. Within a couple of years most of the invading force has married Jehor locals.

This in the short term is not great for Vertecrank, even though the people chosen to invade are really good about writing letters to their moms and coming back to visit. Those teens not selected for the invasion and still in Vertecrank feel like they have something to prove so they up their game and try harder. Ultimately it works well for both countries.

Answer 2

The premise of your question and your two demands are in antithesis to each other.

1."show that 1. they mean no harm to the country or to the people living in it" but they do, they wish to colonize them, even if they wanted to do it as peacefully as possible it won't be bloodless, even if it were, you are taking away the autonomy of a people and that by itself will harm them and even if the current leadership is well meaning there is no guarantee that the following leaders will too.

2."they want Jehor to become strong allies with them without replacing candidates" I believe you need to reword your question, does Vertercrank wish to ally with them or colonize them? If they are not going to interfere with the local government then they are simply allies and not a colony, this alliance can be set up with a simple meeting.

But if they wish to keep their culture in check culture will be an important factor, even if you are "benevolent" masters there will be tension, these are an independent people that have recently been defeated (assuming then didn't hand their independency away without a fight) and humiliated (being colonized). How to deal with this will be very important, as we can see with real world examples people that are ok with colonization are not very open minded and tend to deal with this problem violently but this has proven to be largely ineffective.

If they want long term stability they should treat both cultures equally while creating in the colony a dependency to the colonizers, respecting their culture and bringing prosperity will on long term put them on your side against their natural adversaries (neighbors).

Edit: In answer to your edits. The best way to achieve your goals is with economic ties, your example was England and Portugal which is also a perfect example of the solution, Portugal's ties to England were mainly economic, England provided them with products they needed (wine and textiles mostly), Portugal was not willing to part with the goods and England made a lot of money from it, until Portugal was so dependent on England they could not afford to cut ties (as in the Napoleonic wars). But this would only work if the countries have good ties to each other, it could easily backfire like with England and China, where a similar situation led to the first opium war.

You mentioned using religion, that could and could not work, we have multiple religions with messianic figures and they tend to not go well together, even the same religion sometimes doesn't get along with itself.

If two entirely different but similar religions came together with their holy texts in a big council and spent years studying to come out with a new "merged" religion that could be very interesting but there are events that could very well happen in real life but we do not accept in fiction, like for example if you wrote that X character survived an assassination attempt then turned the wrong corner to accidentally meet one of the men that tried to murder him? We would not accept that in fiction but in real life it did start WWI

Answer 3

Turn Local Rivals Against Each Other

When you enter foreign lands, you do so with a more or less neutral reputation. So, all you have to do is find rivals who have a less than neutral relationship and turn them against each other by offering one side the confidence that you will back them up.

So, when the Vertercrank Empire prepares to extend its influence into Jehor, thier first move is not to send thier armies or thier colonists. It is to send thier spies to learn about local politics. Your second move is to send diplomates armed with that information to try to stir the flames of rivalry between your target, and thier neighbors.

Let's say, Jehor has a neighboring state called Kelbor which is twice its size and 3 times as rich. Many businesses in Jehor are owned by Kelboran Lords. The Kelborans are always getting involved in thier politics, messing with thier economy by fixing exchange rates in the region, and all sorts of subtle things that generally make the Kelborans uncomfortable neighbors.

So, in comes the Vertercrank diplomats. They don't just offer the Jehorans help building thier economy, but they know exactly what to say as to why the Jehorans NEED help building thier economy. Vertercrank does not need to offer absolute autonomy to Jehor, they just need to offer them a better deal than they have right now. One that makes them reliant on Vertercrank in ways that are more subtle than the conditions they are being freed from with Kelbor.

From Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul to the Spanish victory over the Aztecs, this same general strategy has led to many of history's greatest conquests.

Answer 4

Alliances are bases on something common

• Common fear: There is a threat from an enemy to different groups. These groups will make an alliance e.g. Alliances in WW-I and WW-II, NATO, UNO, sharing vaccine in an epidemic.
• Common interest or greed: Economic interest, trading, Scientific research, grabbing resources e.g. EU. International space station, UNO, America and Australia as told by @Daron.
• Common ideology: Alliances based on religion e.g. crusades.

One important thing (as told here)

For alliances to sustain themselves, the synergies that are generated between partners must be greater than the conflicts that drive them apart.

Do Vertercrank and Jehor have any of above things common?

In history, Egypt and Syria united to make United Arab Republic (1958–1961). Then United Arab Republic and the Kingdom of Yemen made a confederation called the United Arab State.

Hashemite Arab Federation was formed in 1958 from the union between the Hashemite Kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan.

USSR was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics (1922 to 1991).

Similarly there were other confederations which broke later on because of conflicts.