cede which is spelled C E D E means to give up something, particularly power or territory
and usually under some type of negotiation or threat, cause people don't generally don't
give up these things voluntarily. There's other words that are related to this such
as concede which means to give in in an argument. Recede which would typically be with a lake
or some level of water where the level goes down or a hairline, where the hair goes back
so that means to recede. There is also succeed which is almost the opposite of that, it means
to move forward and to gain power over new areas that maybe you didn't have before. Usually
cede is not used in everyday conversation where you say I ceded this to the other person
in the argument. In this case you would say I conceded. You wouldn't say I ceded. Ceded
is usually used in high-level negotiations between governments and between large corporations,
where one group will give up something of some substance such as part of a country or
some power that they had where they agreed that they don't have the power anymore. So
to cede means to give up something to [of substance] some other group or some other
country or to give control of something. So in this context somebody ceded jurisdiction
in this matter to the American authorities, which means that they gave up their jurisdiction
over this and they handed over the jurisdiction to the American authorities. Back in 1848
the US got into a war with Mexico over Texas- independence of Texas -and the US won the
war and as a result Mexico ceded the southwestern part of the United States including California,
Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona. Back in the olden days when countries went to war and
one country lost, oftentimes as part of the peace treaty, they would have to cede territories
to the winning country. Typically dictators are very unwilling to cede their power and
oftentimes they either die old or they meet early deaths rather than give up their power.
One exception to this is Idi Amin who agreed to go into exile which he did, so he survived
ceding power. Other dictators are still holding power such as Robert Mugabe
in Zimbabwe.