Ally makes war on my protecorate

Subject says it. There doesn't seem to be a diplomatic option to prevent or dissuade allies from making war on your protectorates. If you break your treaty to aid your protectorate, then the entire map hates you.

Suggestions?

Always betray your protectorate. Why?
1) Breaking a relationship with a longstanding ally just worsens your global reputation -- other factions will be more apt to make war on you and your diplomatic force will lessen as a result.
2)Your protectorates rarely establish an extensive networks of allies and trade partners, betraying them will barely weaken your national prestige and trust, if at all.

Actually, if I'm not wrong, when an ally attack an ally, or an ally attacks a protectorate, you get no penalties only if you defend the side that has been attacked. In the case of the OP entering the war on the side of the protectorate would bring no "broken treaties" penatly, not even with the former ally that caused the war.

It actually just happened to me, as the Batavian republic (ally) attacked westphalia (protectorate), i entered the war in the side of westphalia, beat the batavians into submission, and found myself with two protectorates at the price of one (I "liberated" batavia, that became holland and is now my loyal protectorate), and no diplomatic penatlies.

This happened to me in my recent Great Britain campaign. It was 1811 sometime and Europe had been at peace for a year or so since France and the Ottoman Empire were destroyed. Out of nowhere Russia declared war on Hungary and Prussia declared war on Hessen-Kassel, both my protectorates. I had been expecting something like this to happen eventually, so all of my armies were encamped on the borders of my "allies." Their aggression gave me casus belli, so my armies swarmed into their lands, taking many regions before any proper defense could be mustered. Even then, there was no hope for Prussia and Russia. My armies were many, they were battle hardened, and I was so filthy rich at that point (2500000 in the treasury) that I could continuously create armies to sweep them from the map. My former allies were soon begging for peace, but I was not about to forgive their insult to the British Empire. Both were soon wiped from the map, leaving Great Britain as the uncontested super power of Europe.

Interesting. In this case, my ally was at war with this small state before I "liberated" it, and they remained at war afterward. So I never had the opportunity to justifiably go to war with my ally.

Second, I didn't want to be betray the protectorate because that territory was part of my victory conditions. In the future I'll make sure to annex them instead.

pretty weird. Something must have happened in the middle because when you "liberate" a state, they count in everything as a new nation, so all their diplomacy will be reset. Including wars.

Originally Posted by Abriael

pretty weird. Something must have happened in the middle because when you "liberate" a state, they count in everything as a new nation, so all their diplomacy will be reset. Including wars.

Yes but historic greivances are still kept, if played down a little bit.

Originally Posted by Lowes

Yes but historic greivances are still kept, if played down a little bit.

yeah, what i meant is that they had to declare war again, because they'd be at peace when the protectorate is liberated.

I always defend my protectorates. I mean that's what they're called protectorates for. You mess with my protectorates you may as well just declare war on me directly.

This is basically a fundamental flaw of the games diplomacy AI and a major drawback of forming protectorates. It happens quite a lot I find. And as far as I can tell, the diplomatic penalties are far worse if you do not side with the protectorate. My solution would be this. Do not create protectorates. I find a better option for a territory that you want to take but not hold is this: Take it, loot it, and then give it to the most neutral faction in the game (ie. papal states) you will have to give them a £100 or a single tech as a sweetener but it can sometimes work a treat, and create an impassable buffer state for you.

Thanks Dave, that seems like a good thing to try.

Wow i literally just posted about this. lol