Commonwealth/ British Colonial

The Commonwealth of Nations (CN), usually known as the Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, the majority of which are former colonies of the United Kingdom. more...

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It was once known as the British Commonwealth of Nations or British Commonwealth, and some still call it by that name, either for historical reasons or to distinguish it from the other commonwealths around the world. The full name, Commonwealth of Nations, is sufficient to distinguish the Commonwealth from other commonwealths such as the Commonwealth of Independent States or the Commonwealth of Australia.

Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth, and as such is the symbol of the free association of its members. This title, however, does not imply any political power over Commonwealth member states, and does not automatically belong to the British monarch. In practice Queen Elizabeth heads the Commonwealth in only a symbolic capacity, and it is the Commonwealth Secretary-General who is the chief executive of the organisation.

Although Queen Elizabeth is the Head of State of sixteen members of the Commonwealth, called Commonwealth Realms, the majority of the members of the Commonwealth have their own, separate Heads of State: thirty-one members are Commonwealth republics and six members have their own monarchs (Brunei, Lesotho, Malaysia, Samoa, Swaziland, and Tonga). These members still recognise the Queen as Head of the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth is primarily an organisation in which countries with diverse economic backgrounds have an opportunity for close and equal interaction. The primary activities of the Commonwealth are designed to create an atmosphere of economic co-operation between member nations, as well as the promotion of democracy, human rights, and good governance in those nations.

The Commonwealth is not a political union, and does not allow the United Kingdom (UK) to exercise any power over the affairs of the organisation's other members.

Every four years the Commonwealth's members celebrate the Commonwealth Games, the world's second-largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.

Origin

Although performing a vastly different function, the Commonwealth is the successor of the British Empire. In 1884, whilst visiting Adelaide, South Australia, Lord Rosebery described the changing British Empire, as some of its colonies became more independent, as a "Commonwealth of Nations".

British Empire weakens

Conferences of British and colonial Prime Ministers had occurred periodically since 1887, leading to the creation of the Imperial Conferences in the late 1920s. The formal organisation of the Commonwealth developed from the Imperial Conferences, where the independence of the self-governing colonies and especially of dominions was recognised, particularly in the Balfour Declaration at the Imperial Conference in 1926, when Britain and its dominions agreed they were "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations". This relationship was eventually formalised by the Statute of Westminster in 1931.

Read more at Wikipedia.org