The Commonwealth Experience

Commonwealth was the offspring of Empire but it had an experience of its own. That experience was distinct and distinguishable. Empire, its acquisition, its government and administration and, above all, its conceptual foundation was one thing, developing relations between autonomous policies within a community of states, another. Both are deserving of study but it is the second, which in British history superseded the first, that provides the theme of this enquiry. The first volume treats of mid-nineteenth century Anglo-Canadian origins; of the ethnic and social composition, related problems of unity and diversity and the dominant interests of the colonies of settlement that became dominions; of the extent to which those interests conditioned their notions of a right relationship with Britain, leading to rejection of imperial federation and stimulating a dominion demand first in peace and then, more sharply, in the catalyst of world war for a free and equal association with Britain in what came to be known as the British Commonwealth of Nations. That description was first officialy used in the Anglo-Irish Treatry of 1921, which, with the dominion settlement it embodied, may be thought of as an epilogue to the first and a foreshadowing of later phases in the Commonwealth experience. On first publication The Commonwealth Experience was described as a classic. Theme and treatment remain, but in this new edition the text has been revised throughout and parts of if rewritten in the light of reinterpretations, the disclosure of new evidence and further reflection.