Colonies are completely run and "owned" by the mother country; protectorates still have control over their internal affairs. In effect, they sacrifice their right to engage in independent international politics in exchange for protection from their neighbors.
Qatar was a British protectorate from 1916 to 1971. By all accounts it entered this agreement quite willingly, as the alternative was trying to fend off the Ottomans, the Sauds and the Bahraini Khalifas at the same time.
From nosing around online, it looks like Kuwait, Bahrain, the Trucial states (now the UAE), Oman and Aden (later South Yemen) were all protectorates too. I guess that actually answers my longstanding question about how all these teeny little areas on the Gulf managed to withstand Saudi expansionism....
But in spite of all temptations / To belong to other nations...
Qatar was a British protectorate from 1916 to 1971. By all accounts it entered this agreement quite willingly, as the alternative was trying to fend off the Ottomans, the Sauds and the Bahraini Khalifas at the same time.
From nosing around online, it looks like Kuwait, Bahrain, the Trucial states (now the UAE), Oman and Aden (later South Yemen) were all protectorates too. I guess that actually answers my longstanding question about how all these teeny little areas on the Gulf managed to withstand Saudi expansionism....