The more Confucian the actors, the more likely they were to participate in the tributary system. In practice the behaviours collectively seen as a tributary system, which involved tribute and gift exchange in return for symbolic subordination, wereonly formalized during the early years of the Ming dynasty. Tributary members were virtually autonomous and carried out their own agendas despite sending tribute; as was the case with Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, and Vietnam. Chinese influence on tributary states was almost always non-interventionist in nature and tributary states "normally could expect no military assistance from Chinese armies should they be invaded". The Chinese tributary system was upended in the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of Western and Japanese colonialism. Japan took Korea and the Ryukyu Islands, France took Vietnam, and Britain took Upper Burma. Since the colonial times, Britain had regarded Tibet as being under Chinese suzerainty, but in 2008 the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called that word an "anachronism" in a statement, and recognized Tibet as part of China. Ancient Israel and Near East Suzerainty treaties and similar covenants and agreements between Middle Eastern states were quite prevalent during the pre-monarchic and monarchy periods in Ancient Israel. The Hittites, Egyptians, and Assyrians had been suzerains to the Israelites and other tribal kingdoms of the Levant from 1200 to 600 BC. The structure of Jewish covenant law was similar to the Hittite form of suzerain. Each treaty would typically begin with an "Identification" of the Suzerain, followed by an historical prologue cataloguing the relationship between the two groups "with emphasis on the benevolent actions of the suzerain towards the vassal". Following the historical prologue came the stipulation. This included tributes, obligations and other forms of subordination that would be imposed on the Israelites. According to the Hittite form, after the stipulations were offered to the vassal, it was necessary to include a request to have copies of the treaty that would be read throughout the kingdom periodically. The treaty would have divine and earthly witnesses purporting the treaty's validity, trustworthiness, and efficacy. This also tied into the blessings that would come from following the treaty and the curses from breaching it. For disobedience, curses would be given to those who had not remained steadfast in carrying out the stipulations of the treaty. Hittite suzerainty treaty form Below is a form of a Hittite suzerainty treaty. Preamble: Identifies the parties involved