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commonwealth

(Encyclopedia)commonwealth, form of administration signifying government by the common consent of the people. To Locke and Hobbes and other 17th-century writers the term meant an organized political community simil...

Commonwealth Fund

(Encyclopedia)Commonwealth Fund, foundation established (1918) by Anna M. Harkness, wife of Stephen V. Harkness, an early Standard Oil investor, “for the welfare of mankind.” Its headquarters are in New York Ci...

Commonwealth games

(Encyclopedia)Commonwealth games, series of amateur athletic meets held among citizens of countries in the Commonwealth of Nations. Originated (1930) as the British Empire games, the series is held every four years...

Commonwealth of Nations

(Encyclopedia)Commonwealth of Nations, voluntary association of Great Britain and its dependencies, certain former British dependencies that are now sovereign states and their dependencies, and the associated state...

Commonwealth of Independent States

(Encyclopedia)Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), community of independent nations established by a treaty signed at Minsk, Belarus, on Dec. 8, 1991, by the heads of state of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Bet...

dominion

(Encyclopedia)dominion, power to rule, or that which is subject to rule. Before 1949 the term was used officially to describe the self-governing countries of the Commonwealth of Nations—e.g., Canada, Australia, o...

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