the Soviet Union and those of South Korea, Japan, and the United States (stationed in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan from 1954 to 1979). Manchuria was a pro-Japanese buffer state between the Empire of Japan, the Soviet Union, and the Republic of China during World War II. The kingdom of Thailand, historically known as Siam, was an independent buffer state between the British Raj, British Malaya, French Indochina, and their competing colonial interests in Laos and Cambodia. Korea acted as a buffer zone between the growing superpowers of Imperial Japan and the Russian Empire. The Far Eastern Republic was a formally independent state created to act as a buffer between Bolshevik Russia and the Empire of Japan. Afghanistan was a buffer state between the British Empire, which ruled much of South Asia, and the Russian Empire, which ruled much of Central Asia, during the Anglo–Russian conflicts of the 19th century. Later, the Wakhan Corridor extended the buffer eastwards to the Chinese border. The Himalayan nations of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim were buffer states between the British Empire and China. Later, in the Sino-Indian War of 1962, they became buffers between China and India as the two powers fought along their borders. Mongolia acted as a buffer between the Soviet Union and China until 1991. It currently serves as a buffer between Russia and China is a buffer state between Israel and Syria. and are buffer states between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Africa Morocco served as a buffer state between the Ottoman Empire, Spain, and Portugal in the 16th century. Bechuanaland Protectorate (present-day Botswana) was initially created by the British Empire as a buffer between the British Empire and the two Boer republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic until the Second Boer War. Europe Switzerland has been a buffer state between Italy, Austria, France, Germany, and other state powers in medieval and modern Europe. The United Kingdom of the Netherlands, composed of today's Belgium and Netherlands, was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to maintain peace between France, Prussia, and the United Kingdom. The kingdom existed for 15 years until the Belgian revolution Belgium acted as buffer state between France, German Empire, Netherlands, and British Empire before the First World War The Rhineland served as a demilitarized zone between France and Germany during the inter-war years of the 1920s and early 1930s. There were early French