Dominion

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A dominion was any of several largely self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the British Commonwealth of Nations.^{[1][non-primary source needed]} Progressing from colonies, their degrees of colonial self-governance increased unevenly over the late 19th century through the 1930s. Vestiges of empire lasted in some dominions well into the late 20th century. With the evolution of the British Empire following the 1945 conclusion of the Second World War into the modern Commonwealth of Nations (after which the former Dominions were often referred to as the Old Commonwealth),^{[2][not verified in body]} 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".^[3] 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.

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.^[4] 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 realms and republics.

After this the term dominion, without its legal dimension, stayed in use thirty more years for those Commonwealth countries which had the crown as head of state. Gradually, particularly after 1953, the term was replaced by the term realm, as equal realms of the crown of the Commonwealth.