Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-27389023-20160612112514/@comment-26893431-20161031180417

Bronkiin wrote: Perhaps it is still nominally Imperial. I think we can all agree, as Jauffre mentioned above, the Empire holds no actual power there. Exactly, no real Imperial power in Morrowind, they are able to leave when they wish to do so.

You could see it as with Surinam and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it's similar (though not identical when it comes to the millitary).