Commonwealth Realm: Encyclopedia II - Commonwealth Realm - Former Commonwealth Realms

Commonwealth Realm - Former Commonwealth Realms

Following their independence from the United Kingdom, most Commonwealth countries retained the Queen as head of state, changing the title of the monarch to indicate sovereignty of their own respective nations (ie: "Queen of Barbados", rather than "Queen of the United Kingdom"). The Union of South Africa and Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) were the first to do this. When Papua New Guinea became independent of Australia in 1975, Queen Elizabeth was styled "Queen of Papua New Guinea", the first time she became Queen of a nation that had never been a British colony in its entirety.

With time, some Commonwealth Realms moved to become republics, passing constitutional amendments removing the monarch as their head of state, and replacing the Governor-General with an elected or appointed president. This was especially true in post-colonial Africa, whose leaders often did not want to "share" the office of Head of State with the Queen. Most African Realms became republics within a few years of independence. However, they remained within the Commonwealth, following the 1950 London Declaration, which allowed India to recognise the British monarch as 'Head of the Commonwealth', but not as Head of State.

In some former Commonwealth Realms, including Malta, Trinidad and Tobago, and Mauritius, the new office of President was a ceremonial post, but in others, such as Ghana, Malawi and Gambia, the Presidency was an executive post, usually first held by the last Prime Minister. In the latter cases not only was the monarchy abolished, but so was the entire Westminster system of parliamentary government as well.

When the white minority government of Rhodesia issued its Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, it affirmed its loyalty to the Queen as 'Queen of Rhodesia', a title to which she had not consented, which she did not accept, and which was not recognised internationally. Her representative in the colony, the Governor Sir Humphrey Gibbs immediately dismissed Prime Minister Ian Smith from office, but this was ignored and an 'Officer Administering the Government' was appointed to perform the Governor's constitutional duties. In 1970, Smith's government declared Rhodesia a republic.

The Queen's position as Queen of Grenada remained unaffected by the overthrow of Prime Minister Eric Gairy by the left-wing Maurice Bishop in 1979, and the Governor General remained in office. Following the United States-led Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in October 1983, in the wake of Bishop's violent overthrow, the Governor General oversaw the holding of new elections and the restoration of parliamentary democracy.

In Fiji, the change to a republic in 1987 came as a result of a military coup, rather than out of any republican sentiment, as Fiji's indigenous chiefs had voluntarily ceded their country to the Crown. Even when Fiji was not a member of the Commonwealth, symbols of the monarchy remained, including the Queen's portrait on banknotes and coins, and, unlike in the United Kingdom, the Queen's Official Birthday is a public holiday. When Fiji was readmitted to the Commonwealth, the issue of reinstating the Queen as Head of State was raised, but not pursued, although the country's Great Council of Chiefs reaffirmed that the Queen was still the country's 'Paramount Chief'.

The former Commonwealth realms, and the intervals in which they were realms, are as follows:

• Ceylon now Sri Lanka ¹ - 1948 to 1972
• Fiji ² - 1970 to 1987 (military coup)
• Gambia ³ - 1965 to 1970 (referendum)
• Ghana ³ - 1957 to 1960 (referendum)
• Guyana ¹ - 1966 to 1970 (constitutional amendment)
• India ³ - 1947 to 1950 (constitutional amendment)
• Ireland ⁴ - 1931 to 1936/1949
• Kenya ³ - 1963 to 1964 (new constitution)
• Malawi ³ - 1964 to 1966 (new constitution)
• Malta ² - 1964 to 1974
• Mauritius ² - 1968 to 1992
• Nigeria ¹ - 1960 to 1963 (constitutional amendment)
• Pakistan ¹ - 1947 to 1956 (new constitution)
• Sierra Leone ³ - 1961 to 1971
• Union of South Africa ² - 1931 to 1961 (referendum)
• Tanganyika now Tanzania ³ - 1961 to 1962
• Trinidad and Tobago ³ - 1962 to 1976
• Uganda ¹ - 1962 to 1963 (constitutional amendment)

1. Presidency is executive post.
2. Presidency originally ceremonial, now executive.
3. Presidency is ceremonial post.
4. Monarch removed from constitution and office of Governor-General abolished in 1936, Presidency created in 1937 by constitution adopted by plebiscite, but monarch retained external role until republic declared in 1949 by ordinary legislation. See Irish head of state from 1936-1949.

Other former British colonies, protectorates, mandates and trust territories followed different paths. Burma, Sudan, Cyprus, Zambia, Singapore, Botswana, South Yemen, Bangladesh, Nauru, the Seychelles, Dominica, Kiribati, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Vanuatu became republics on independence and were thus never Commonwealth Realms. Nor were Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Malaya, Zanzibar, the Maldives, Sikkim, Brunei, Tonga, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, the Trucial States, Swaziland, or Lesotho, all of which had their own monarchies, many of them having been British protectorates.

Other former colonies did not become Commonwealth Realms because they became part of larger entities rather than achieving independence. Newfoundland, although a dominion covered by the Statute of Westminster, never became a Commonwealth Realm because it never ratified the Statute. Instead, it reverted to colonial status in 1934 and became a province of Canada in 1949. British Somaliland and Cameroons were absorbed into the larger entities of Somalia and Cameroon. Sarawak and North Borneo joined Malaya to form Malaysia, which has its own monarchy. The mandate of Palestine was divided between the new state of Israel, Jordan and Egypt in 1948. Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China in 1997.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Former Commonwealth Realms", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki