British Empire and colonies autonomy
The
British Empire began its transformation into what today is the
Commonwealth with the extension of the status of domain to the colonies
with self-government for the Dominion of Newfoundland (1855), Canada
(1867), Australia (1901), New Zealand (1907), and the newly created
Union of South Africa (1910). The
leaders of the new States met with British statesmen in periodic summits
called colonial conferences (and since 1907, Imperial conferences), the
first of which was kept in London in 1887.
Territories that at one time or another have been part of England and later the United Kingdom throughout history.
Foreign
relations of domains even the Foreign Office of the United Kingdom
addressed them: Canada created a Department of external affairs in 1909,
but diplomatic relations with other Governments were still leading from
London. The Declaration of war by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the first world war affected all domains.
British Empire in 1921.
Domains
possessed a great margin of manoeuvre in drawing up their policies
towards the outside, provided that this does not fit directly in
conflict with the interests of the United Kingdom: the Government of the
Liberal Party of Canada negotiated a bilateral free trade agreement
with the United States in 1911.
The British Empire in 1897, in pink, which was the color in that traditional British Dominions on maps.
In
defense matters, the original conception who understand domains as an
integral part of the naval and military structure of a single Empire
ended as untenable as the United Kingdom committed itself in Europe and
facing the challenge of an emerging German fleet since 1900. In 1909 it was decided that domains have their own armed.
Gibraltar, United Kingdom territory, is claimed by Spain. It is in the list of the United Nations Decolonization Committee.