India, the empire's most populous dominion and considered the jewel in its crown, wanted to become a republic and, following partition from Pakistan, gained full independence in 1947, with its own head of state, as did Pakistan. At the time, all the member countries had the UK's monarch as head of state. The 1926 Balfour Declaration created the British Commonwealth, stating that all the dominions were designated autonomous communities. Over time, as people in many of the empire's dominions became increasingly self-reliant, there was a push for growing autonomy.
The origin of the Commonwealth goes back to the British Empire, which at one point covered a quarter of the world's land surface, and which subjugated millions of people for the benefit of relatively few. She attended almost all the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings and spent hundreds of hours entertaining heads of state from around the globe in order to keep up the links necessary to ensure a body like the Commonwealth can continue to exist.īut, in the wake of her death, there will be some who will ask if it can survive in its current form - or even if it should. In her seven decades on the throne, she visited all but a tiny handful of the group's 54 countries, undertaking thousands of hours of gruelling travel to reach its many far-flung places. Few would argue that the Queen was a tireless advocate and supporter of the Commonwealth.
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