Does the Commonwealth refer to the intergovernmental organization of countries that were previously part of the former British Empire?


It refers to what was once the British Empire. It was originally referred to as the ‘British Commonwealth’ but it’s just a name… it could just as easily be called the Council of Nations or similar. Note that the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is the former Soviet States.


It can be confusing because in Australia, our Federal Government refers to itself as ‘the Commonwealth’. We do this in a similar fashion to the US Government referring to itself as the ‘United States’ as opposed to individual States (or Commonwealths in the case of Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania or Massachusetts).

The official name of Australia is the ‘Commonwealth of Australia’ but the choice of that title had nothing to do with the ‘British Commonwealth (which was called the ‘Commonwealth’ later), it was because we were starting a nation with a Federal Government, with a written, codified and entrenched Constitution like the United States and we wanted a name that was suitable for an egalitarian style nation so we looked back to the 1649 to 1660 period of England (before the United Kingdom/Great Britain came into being) and the aspirations of that time that led to the name ‘Commonwealth of England’.

The British objected to it but we adopted it anyway. So, because the Federal level in Australia is called the Commonwealth of Australia, you will hear State leaders often say “… the State will fund part of this project and we will approach the Commonwealth to contribute…” or Federal Ministers saying “… while we agree with the State of Victoria’s desire to start building the new rail loop, it is not a ‘Commonwealth’ responsibility…”

I realise that’s got beyond the original question but I just wanted to emphasise that it’s just a word but a word with very specific meaning… coming from ‘common weal’ it is often thought to mean ‘common good’ but can also be interpreted as an old English word for ‘republic’ as in it’s original context ‘common’ meant ‘people’ or ‘the people’ and ‘weal’ meant ‘wealth’ but not in monetary sense but rather welding power as in power by the people or government by the governed.

It appears that by the 50s/60s the United Kingdom and the royal family had got over their original objection to Australia’s name as Britain chose the name ‘Commonwealth of Nations’ to emphasise the collegial and equal nature of the member States banded together for common good.

So, it’s just a word and yes it does comprise former British Empire States but not all of them. The United States is not a member for example and Fiji was suspended as was Zimbabwe for a time and South Africa left many years ago and has since re-joined. Over 40 of the members are republics and a number have their own monarchy so it’s purely voluntary. When Australia becomes a republic it will simply have to inform the Commonwealth Office in London that it intends to continue its membership.