Military occupation, also called belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the temporary control exerted by a ruling power's military apparatus over a sovereign territory that is outside of the legal boundaries of the ruling power's own sovereign territory. The controlled territory is then known as the occupied territory, with the ruling power being the occupant. Occupation is distinguished from annexation and colonialism on the basis that it is a power structure that the ruling power intends to keep in place only temporarily. In many cases, an occupant may establish a military government to facilitate the administration of the occupied territory, though this is not a necessary precondition for occupation to take place.