During World War II a number of countries were conquered and controlled. Some of these countries were then given new names, and assigned new governmental leaders which were loyal to the conquering country. These countries are known as puppet states. Germany and Japan were the two countries with the most puppet states. Italy also had several puppet states. The Allies had many more puppet states than all the Axis collectively: the United Kingdom possessed the largest empire in the world, followed by France and the United States had colonies, protectorates, puppets and territories throughout South Asia, the Caribbean, Central America and Polynesia. Additionally, the United Kingdom and France took control of the colonial empire of Italy following the war for many years.