COMMONWEALTH

also called Commonwealth Of Nations, formerly (193146) British Commonwealth Of Nations, a free association of sovereign states comprising Great Britain 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. Historically, the Commonwealth was an evolutionary outgrowth of the British Empire (q.v.). The traditional British policy of allowing considerable self-government in its colonies led to the existence by the 19th century of several dependent states, which were populated to a significant degree by Europeans accustomed to the forms of parliamentary rule and which possessed large degrees of sovereignty. By 1931 they were recognized as having special status within the empire by the Statute of Westminster, which referred specifically to a British Commonwealth of Nations. The adjective British was dropped from official use in 1946. The rapid growth of nationalism in other parts of the empire from the 1920s on produced a long series of grants of independence, beginning with that to India in 1947, and required a redefinition of the Commonwealth. In 1947 India and Pakistan became members of the Commonwealth, the first with chiefly non-European populations. In 1948 Burma (Myanmar) became independent and rejected membership. Further broadening of the meaning of Commonwealth recognized the possibility of members' choosing republican or other non-parliamentary forms of government and the possibility of resignation from the association, as was done by the Irish Republic in 1948, by South Africa in 1961, and by Pakistan in 1972. The ties that bound the Commonwealth were highly diverse. Sentiment was one, particularly in the old dominions; trade, investment, and currency agreements were another; population migrations, common educational, professional, and judicial heritages, and sports were still others. Most of the dependent states granted independence in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s chose Commonwealth membership. Meetings of Commonwealth heads of government take place every two years. In 1965 a Commonwealth Secretariat was established in London to organize and coordinate Commonwealth activities.