Common knowledge
Tensions in the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Jamaica led some to speculate that the Commonwealth might not long survive the present Queen’s reign. Who came up with the idea of naming the successor organisation to the British Empire after a term first used by Oliver Cromwell?
– Lord Rosebery is recorded as referring to a ‘Commonwealth of nations’ in 1884, a decade before he became prime minister.
– The term was first used officially in the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, which established a federation of British colonies.
– The idea of a British Commonwealth first surfaced at the 1926 Imperial Conference.
– The word ‘British’ was dropped in 1949.
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