Commonwealth
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by NItramNos (talk | contribs) at 02:10, May 22, 2007. It may differ significantly from current revision.
Commonwealth is a term mainly meaning 'republic', 'dominion, 'state' or even 'free state'. It was the term used to describe the British state by the Cromwellians from 1649 until the restoration of the British monarchy in 1660.
It occurs in the formal names of several US states, as Virginia, Massachussetts and Pennsylvania, and is similarly used by the US territory of Puerto Rico. The most common modern reference to commonwealth refers to the Commonwealth of Nations, an organisation whose members were, with a few exceptions, formerly part of the British Empire.