Slovakia became the Slovak Republic, an independent state (under German protection) which was formally recognised by the Soviet Union and Germany, with "de facto" recognition by Great Britain and France (but not by the United States who were largely responsible, in 1919, for the new artificial state of Czechoslovakia). Czech émigrés and the United States considered Slovakia a puppet state of Germany. After the later recognition of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile by Great Britain, the British Foreign Office notified the Czech Foreign Ministry that Britain did not recognise any territorial claims of Czechoslovakia, nor could they commit to any fixed boundaries for the state, nor recognise the legal continuation of Czechoslovakia.