Commonwealth, the (British)

Voluntary association of 54 sovereign (self-ruling) countries and their dependencies, the majority of which once formed part of the British Empire and are now independent sovereign states. They are all regarded as ‘full members of the Commonwealth’; the newest member being Mozambique, which was admitted in November 1995. Additionally, there are 13 territories that are not completely sovereign and remain dependencies of the UK or one of the other fully sovereign members, and are regarded as ‘Commonwealth countries’. Heads of government meet every two years, apart from those of Nauru and Tuvalu; however, Nauru and Tuvalu have the right to take part in all functional activities. The Commonwealth, which was founded in 1931, has no charter or constitution, and is founded more on tradition and sentiment than on political or economic factors. However, it can make political statements by withdrawing membership; a recent example was Nigeria's suspension between November 1995 and May 1999 because of human-rights abuses. Fiji was readmitted in October 1997, ten years after its membership had been suspended as a result of discrimination against its ethnic Indian community.

On 15 May 1917 Jan Smuts, representing South Africa in the Imperial War Cabinet of World War I, suggested that ‘British Commonwealth of Nations’ was the right title for the British Empire. The name was recognized in the Statute of Westminster in 1931, but after World War II a growing sense of independent nationhood led to the simplification of the title to the Commonwealth.

In 2000 Queen Elizabeth II was the formal head but not the ruler of 17 member states; 5 member states had their own monarchs; and 33 were republics (having no monarch). The Commonwealth secretariat, headed from April 2000 by London-born Canadian Don McKinnon as secretary general, is based in London. The secretariat's staff come from a number of member countries, which also pay its operating costs.

The Commonwealth of Nations, formerly the British Commonwealth, but now referred to simply as the Commonwealth, is a successor organization that evolved by stages from the old British Empire. It is composed entirely of territories that were once under British rule, but which have become completely independent states. Each of its members is of equal status within the organization (except Nauru and Tuvalu, which have limited membership), but the British monarch is recognized symbolically as head of the Commonwealth.

The first countries of the old British Empire to gain independence were Canada (1867), Australia (1901), New Zealand (1907), and South Africa (1910), but their status was uncertain until defined by the Statute of Westminster (1931) which established the equal relationship between the four dominions and Britain. On attaining independence, Burma (1948, now known as Myanmar), Sudan (1956), Somalia (1960), South Yemen (1967), Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the Union of Arab Emirates (1971) did not join the Commonwealth. The Republic of Ireland severed connections with the Commonwealth in 1949; South Africa withdrew from it in 1961 (rejoining in June 1994) and Pakistan in 1972, in which year the former province of East Pakistan joined the Commonwealth as Bangladesh. Several West Indian islands became self-governing between 1967 and 1969, but the UK remained responsible for their defence and external relations. Pakistan rejoined the Commonwealth in 1989, but its membership was suspended following its military coup in October 1999. In 2002 Zimbabwe was suspended after Commonwealth observers declared its presidential elections to be neither free nor fair.

Commonwealth ties, once important politically, militarily, and economically, are now mainly cultural and economic, although the latter have weakened considerably with the transformation of Empire into Commonwealth.