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Commonwealth
association of sovereign states
Top Questions
What is the Commonwealth?
What is the Commonwealth?
Who is head of the Commonwealth?
Who is head of the Commonwealth?
Who were the first members of the Commonwealth?
Who were the first members of the Commonwealth?
What is the smallest Commonwealth country?
What is the smallest Commonwealth country?
Recent News
Sep. 19, 2024, 6:48 AM ET (Voice of America English News)
Pressure grows on Britain ahead of Commonwealth summit to pay slavery reparations
Sep. 18, 2024, 5:45 PM ET (Nation.Africa)
In the Commonwealth top job race, Gambian candidate fights at home
Sep. 10, 2024, 3:58 PM ET (AP)
King Charles III to visit Australia and Samoa in a test of stamina after cancer diagnosis
Commonwealth, a free association of sovereign states comprising the United Kingdom and a number of its former dependencies who have chosen to maintain ties of friendship and practical cooperation and who acknowledge the British monarch as symbolic head of their association. The Commonwealth was an evolutionary outgrowth of the British Empire. Contemporaneous with its shedding of mercantilist philosophy, the empire began implementing “responsible government”—i.e., a system under which the governor could act in domestic matters only upon the advice of ministers enjoying the confidence of the elected chamber—in parts of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland in the ...(100 of 1166 words)