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A dominion was any of several largely self-governing countries of the British Empire. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of colonial self-governance increased unevenly over the late 19th century through the 1930s, and some vestiges of empire lasted in some areas into the late 20th century. With the evolution of the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations, finalised in 1949, the dominions became independent states, either as Commonwealth republics or Commonwealth realms.
In 1925, the British government created the Dominion Office from the Colonial Office, although for the next five years they shared the same secretary in charge of both offices. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 Imperial Conference through the Balfour Declaration of 1926, recognising Great Britain and the Dominions as "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations".[1] Their full legislative independence was subsequently confirmed in the 1931 Statute of Westminster. In the 1920s and 1930s, they began to represent themselves in international bodies, in treaty making, and in foreign capitals. Later India, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) also became dominions, for short periods of time.
With the transition of the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations after World War II, it was decided that the term Commonwealth country should formally replace dominion for official Commonwealth usage.[2] This decision was made during the 1949 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference when India was intending to become a republic, so that both types of governments could become and remain full members of the Commonwealth, and this term hence refers to the autonomous dominions and republics.
After this, the term dominion without its legal dimension stayed in use for thirty more years for Commonwealth countries which had the crown as head of state, before gradually, particularly after 1953, being replaced by the term realm, as equal realms of the crown of the Commonwealth.
- ^ "Balfour Declaration, Clause II" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2005. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
- ^ Parsons, T. H. (2014). The Second British Empire: In the Crucible of the Twentieth Century. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-4422-3529-8. OCLC 870098208.