The Commonwealth

In this days in which we are asked to keep away from the world, I want to talk about something that unifie a big part of the english speaking world, the Commonwealth. But first of all WHAT IS THE COMMONWEALTH ?

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 53 countries that share historical and cultural ties, and in many of them English is the official language. Most of these territories once belonged to the British Empire (except for Mozambique and Rwanda, which were never colonies of the British Empire), here you have all the integrants :                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

This countries recognize queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as leader of the Commonwealth. Each country is independent and has its own political system altough some like Canada or Australia continue to maintain a link with the British monarchy. 2.4 billion people live in the member states which represent a third of the world population.

The Commonwealth was born in half of the XIX century when the former colonies of the United Kingdom began to claim independence. The 1926 imperial conference brought together the political leaders of the British Empire. At that meeting was signed the Balfour declaration which recognized that all territories had the same status and were autonumous within the Empire, without being subordinated to the British Empire.



signers of the declaration


The disappearance of the colonies was one of the consequences of world war II, which also meant the end of the British Empire. With the 1949 London Declaration, the british government officially anounced the creation of the Commonwealth of Nations.

THE MISSION OF THE COMMONWEALTH

The Commonwealth is home to rich and developping economies. More than half of the members are very small countries with less than 1.5 million inhabitants. In this aspect one of the Commonwealth functions is economic cooperation establishing trade agreements and facilating business among its members.

The members countries share projects in the international field, cooperation, democracy and peace, and develop joint initiatives to meet global objectives such as combating climate change and promoting gender equality.

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Commonwealth countries have no legal commitments because the organization doesn't have a constitution or laws. The only official decisions come from periodic meetings between the heads of state of the different countries.