The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century.
Since the early 20th century, the term has been used to name some fraternal associations of states, most notably the Commonwealth of Nations, an organisation primarily of former territories of the British Empire.
The Commonwealth of England was the official name of the political unit (de facto military rule in the name of parliamentary supremacy) that replaced the Kingdom of England (after the English Civil War) from 1649 to 1653 and 1659 to 1660, under the rule of Oliver Cromwell and his son and successor Richard.
From 1653 to 1659, although still legally known as a Commonwealth, the republic, united with the former Kingdom of Scotland, operated under different institutions (at times as a de facto monarchy) and is known by historians as the Protectorate.
In this period Iceland was colonized by a public consisting largely of recent immigrants from Norway who had fled the unification of that country under King Harald Fairhair.
[9] "Commonwealth" was first proposed as a term for a federation of the six Australian crown colonies at the 1891 constitutional convention in Sydney.
Its adoption was initially controversial, as it was associated by some with the republicanism of Oliver Cromwell (see above), but it was retained in all subsequent drafts of the constitution.
[10] The term was finally incorporated into law in the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, which established the federation.
All four were part of Great Britain's possessions along the Atlantic coast of North America prior to the American Revolution.
Georgia left the CIS in August 2008 following the 2008 invasion of the Russian military into South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
[17] Labour MP Tony Benn sponsored a Commonwealth of Britain Bill several times between 1991 and 2001, intended to abolish the monarchy and establish a British republic.