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Commonwealth
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Commonwealth flag World map highlighting the member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations in dark blue, spanning regions of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Pacific, and including Australia and Canada. Below the map, a timeline shows when each country joined the Commonwealth, with key dates and country names listed from the 1930s through the 2020s. Fireworks burst over the River Clyde at night, reflecting in the water, with brightly lit modern buildings and a large crane illuminated in blue in Glasgow, Scotland.
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Commonwealth flag Flag of the Commonwealth.

Commonwealth

association of sovereign states
Also known as: British Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth of Nations(Show More)
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•History

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...

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