The Commonwealth of Nations is a military and economic association between 12 nations, all of which are either the UK or one of its former colonies. The alliance was formed after World War II at the suggestion of Winston Churchill to prevent a similar war from breaking out and to oppose Soviet influence across the world. It is one of the strongest military alliances on earth, with the UK being a nuclear power.
History[]
During World War II the United States Congress was dominated by the isolationist wing of the Republican party who opposed direct involvement in the war, although the President at the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was deeply sympathetic to the Allies and provided large amounts of military equipment to the Allies in exchange for only a handful of British naval bases in the Caribbean. This was similar to the American policy towards the Entente during the First World War. The two nations later signed the Atlantic Charter, where they agreed that neither the US or UK would acquire any territory after the war, disarmament of the Axis, free trade between all nations and freedom of the seas. Notably the UK agreed to the principle of self-determination for all people, which was seen as a major victory for the growing anti-imperial faction in British politics, which had first come to prominence during the Second Boer War. The Atlantic Charter was a low-point in German-American relations, although neither nation would ever declare war on the other.
Only two months after World War Two, Winston Churchill was voted out, and the labour government that replaced his was more open to the idea of decolonisation, and would tout India gaining independence under their administration as one of their main achievements for over a decade.
In 1951 Churchill was reelected to the office of Prime Minister and took a more firm stance against decolonisation. The British empire had been an essential part of defeating the Axis during World War II, and maintaining the empire would give the Western World global influence to oppose Soviet influence. Churchill's initial plan was similar to the Imperial Federation proposals from the early 1900s, but was adapted to be a more loose alliance inspired by the Western Union. The UK decided to reform the Commonwealth of Nations into a military alliance similar to the Western Union, and all members of this group voted in favour of this shift in the purpose of the organisation. All dominions Britain at the time were invited to join, including Australia, Ceylon, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies.
The British opposed complete decolonisation by the Western Union, mentioning the global reach that the Western Union could have if it adopted British-style Dominions in their own colonies. The Dutch and Belgians created systems of government modelled on the dominions in Indonesia and the Congo, respectively, while France pursued the French Union as a replacement to the French Empire. The British deployed troops to fight against separatists in Indonesia and French Indochina, although the presence of British forces in these regions was unpopular in Britain due to it being not long after the end of World War II.
The British made several choices about their empire, specifically encouraging the consolidation of different colonies into more cohesive units (following the precedent set by the unification of the British West Indies into the West Indies Federation), while also deciding which ones should remain part of the UK as dependencies, and which should be granted independence. It was decided that Iceland, Malta, Cyprus, Aden, Somaliland, Mauritius, Sierra Leonne and the Gambia should all remain part of the UK. After this decision, only one British possession, Malaya, would break away during a war of independence.
Membership[]
Current Members:
Australia- Bangladesh
- Ghana
- Guyana
- India
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Rhodesia
- South Africa
- Sri Lanka
- UK
- West Indies Federation
Former Members:
- Pakistan (Left due to the Kashmir War, where the rest of the Commonwealth voted to condemn Pakistan as the aggressor)
- Uganda (Left due sanctions placed on it during the dictatorship of Idi Amin, while also leaving in an act of supposed solidarity with Pakistan)
British possessions/Protectorates that never joined:
- Botswana
- Burma
- Egypt
- Eswatini
- Iraq
- Israel
- Lesotho
- Malaya
- Oman
- Sudan
- United Arab Emirates
- Zanzibar
Some former British colonies, such as Sudan, Burma, Malaya and the Arab Gulf States chose to become completely independent from Britain. Each one had their own reason for doing this, Egypt, Iraq and the Arab Gulf States were already monarchies while they had been fairly autonomous from the British since they were just Protectorates (the decision of the UK to remain in Aden also damaged relations with many Arab states), while Malaya aligned itself with the Soviets in the Cold War.