Commonwealth games, series of amateur athletic meets held among citizens of countries in the Commonwealth of Nations. Originated (1930) as the British Empire games, the series is held every fo...

Commonwealth of Nations, voluntary association of Great Britain and its dependencies, certain former British dependencies that are now sovereign states and their dependencies, and the associat...

Commonwealth Fund, foundation established (1918) by Anna M. Harkness, wife of Stephen V. Harkness, an early Standard Oil investor, for the welfare of mankind. Its headquarters are in New York ...

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), community of independent nations established by a treaty signed at Minsk, Belarus, on Dec. 8, 1991, by the heads of state of Russia, Belarus, and Ukra...

Restoration, in English history, the reestablishment of the monarchy on the accession (1660) of Charles II after the collapse of the Commonwealth (see under commonwealth) and the Protectorate....

Dominion, power to rule, or that which is subject to rule. Before 1949 the term was used officially to describe the self-governing countries of the Commonwealth of Nations—e.g., Canada, Austra...

Barton, Sir Edmund, 1849–1920, Australian jurist and statesman. He was a leader in the movement for Australian federation, and became the first prime minister of the Commonwealth of Australia ...

Westminster, Statute of, 1931, in British imperial history, an act of the British Parliament that gave formal recognition to the autonomy of the dominions of the British Empire and was in effe...

Protectorate, in English history, name given to the English government from 1653 to 1659. Following the English civil war and the execution of Charles I, England was declared (1649) a commonwe...

Ranters, name given to the adherents of an antinomian movement in England about the time of the Commonwealth and Protectorate (1649–59). Its principal teaching was pantheistic, that God is pre...