What is the commonwealth that was headed by Queen Elizabeth?

Developed countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada are constitutional monarchies and their political systems are oriented in such a way that the new monarch of the United Kingdom, as part of the usual process, becomes their head of state. However, in June, Australia’s new government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appointed Matt Thistlewaite as the country’s first minister charged with overseeing a transition to a republic, prompting talk that a referendum to remove the Queen could follow. as the head of state.

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, or simply the Commonwealth, is a group of 56 member countries, the vast majority of which are former British colonies. They are mainly in Africa, Asia, America and the Pacific. Three European nations are part of the Commonwealth: Cyprus, Malta and of course the United Kingdom itself.

Fourteen of these 56 countries – together with the United Kingdom – constitute “Commonwealth realms”. They are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. The British monarch – now King Charles III, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II – is the head of state of these countries.

Of the remaining 41 member states of the Commonwealth, 36 are republics – this group includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The other five – Brunei Darussalam, Lesotho, Malaysia, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Tonga – have their own monarchs.

For the wider Commonwealth, the most visible feature of the union is the Commonwealth Games, the international multi-sport competition held every four years in one of the member countries. The Commonwealth Games – which was hosted by India in 2010 and the last edition of which concluded in Birmingham, England last month – is almost the only association ordinary Indians have with the Commonwealth, although there are wider aspects of intergovernmental cooperation within the grouping.

History of the Commonwealth

The Commonwealth is home to 2.5 billion people, a third of the world’s population, most of whom live on the Indian subcontinent. The smaller Commonwealth areas represent the last vestiges of Britain’s colonial empire, a thread connecting the British monarch with some 150 million people outside the UK. Most living inhabitants of the Commonwealth realms have never experienced a direct relationship with Britain.

The Commonwealth was born out of an attempt by Queen Victoria to maintain control over the colonies as independence movements grew stronger. In 1867, after Canada made its frustrations with imperial oversight known, the Queen agreed to grant the territory dominion status, which meant it would have self-government but that Britain could veto policies at the monarch’s discretion. .

In the following decades, other predominantly white British colonies also became dominions – including Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. After World War I, rising waves of nationalist sentiment in the dominions forced more changes and, in 1926, Britain and the dominions agreed that they would be equal in status. That declaration, formalized through the Statute of Westminster in 1931, marked the establishment of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Although India was present at those talks, leaders of the Indian National Movement pushed for full independence. In 1949, newly independent India was invited to join the Commonwealth, and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru agreed with an essential caveat. India demanded that it be granted membership without the requirement to swear allegiance to the Crown. The member countries agreed – and later that year, India, Pakistan and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) joined the Commonwealth.

Four countries in the Commonwealth – Mozambique (1995), Rwanda (2009), Togo (2022) and Gabon (2022) – had no colonial ties to Britain. Mozambique was a Portuguese colony, Rwanda was ruled by the Belgians and Germans, and Togo and Gabon by the French.

All these countries, however, recognize shared values ​​and ties to the British Empire and, according to an analysis published by the BBC, “they see the organization as a useful network of diplomatic and cultural influence and for the exercise of ‘soft power’ on the world stage”. Also, the analysis states, their membership “testifies to the importance of English as a language of business, science and international politics and the necessity of building a series of links to support economic development and listen to diplomatic messages”.

Elizabeth and the Commonwealth

The late Queen cemented her commitment to the Commonwealth on her 21st birthday on 21 April 1947, when she issued a broadcast from South Africa addressing “the youth of the British family of nations” and promising to dedicated her life to the service of the union. .

After her coronation on 2 June 1953 (she had ascended the throne on 6 February 1952, the day her father, King George VI, died), the Queen embarked on a tour of the Commonwealth and was received with much ceremony and enthusiasm. . During her long reign, she visited over a hundred countries and was likely among the most traveled heads of state in history.

Her many trips became symbols of British diplomacy, and while she rarely spoke publicly about her social views, many of her visits placed a clear emphasis on racial equality and ties between nations. In 1995, she visited South Africa to commemorate the end of apartheid and usher the nation into the Commonwealth.

Some, such as the historian Ben Pimlott, have suggested that the Queen needed the Commonwealth more than she needed him. “The monarchy, with its imperial memory, eagerly sought a Commonwealth role, partly to justify itself, but also because it took its supranational role seriously and – in a way never fully understood by politicians – it continued to have links to remote communities who showed their loyalty in ways that did not necessarily come to the attention of Whitehall,” Pimlott wrote.

However, it is important to underline that the Queen had no influence on the governance of the member states of the Commonwealth of Nations nor those of the Commonwealth realms of which she was head. In the latter group of countries, it had several constitutional duties – notably, approving new governments and, sometimes, legislation; and conferring state honors or appointing certain officials.

But all these roles were always largely ceremonial – with only one notable exception. In 1975, Sir John Kerr, the Governor-General of Australia, who was the Queen’s representative in the country, unilaterally sacked the sitting Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam of the Labor Party, to break a parliamentary deadlock, and then installed the leader of opposition, Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal Party, to succeed him. This caused what has been described as the biggest constitutional crisis in Australia’s history.

Leaving the Commonwealth

In the 1970s, a number of countries chose to leave the Commonwealth realm, including Dominica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, effectively removing the Queen as their head of state. In 2021, as Barbados left the kingdom, its Governor-General argued that “the time has come to fully put our colonial past behind us”. The release was timed with the 55th anniversary of Barbados’ independence from the UK.

Another reason for leaving is that Britain’s priorities may not align with those of member states. Although in recent years, these divisions may be cultural, in the past they have also been about foreign policy issues. In 1939, when Great Britain declared war on Nazi Germany, the Union of South Africa and Canada waited more than a week to do the same. During that period, King George VI, as King of the United Kingdom, South Africa and Canada, was at war and at peace with Germany.

Such stark contrasts are rare today, but the Black Lives Matter protests have created a rift between the Crown and its black Commonwealth subjects. Jamaica, a member of the kingdom, was particularly vocal in this regard, even asking the Queen for reparations for the Crown’s role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Analysts have wondered whether, with Elizabeth gone, the new monarch would be able to legally appoint Governors-General in Commonwealth countries unless those countries first change their constitutions to refer to “the King” as their head of state. of the Queen.

If Canada were to consider leaving the sphere, an amendment to its constitution would be required. In the case of Australia, it would have to be a referendum. In 1999, a referendum to give the Australian parliament the power to elect the country’s head of state was defeated by 45 percent to 55 percent, but a new referendum can be called by the current government.

In the end, however, the Queen’s immense popularity and goodwill, both in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, was a binding glue. It is doubtful whether Charles and Queen Consort Camilla are viewed with similar affection, and this may ultimately determine the future of the Commonwealth. Indeed, it has been argued that with the end of Elizabeth II’s reign, a union that was essentially founded on subjugation and that has been tarnished by its association with racism and colonial rule should also be allowed to fade.