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Introduction

Empire covering, at its height in the 1920s, about a sixth of the landmass of the Earth, all of its lands recognizing the United Kingdom (UK) as their leader. It consisted of the Empire of India, four self-governing countries known as dominions, and dozens of colonies and territories. The Empire was a source of great pride to the British, who believed that it was an institution for civilizing the world, and for many years Empire Day (24 May) saw celebration throughout the UK. After World War II it began to dissolve as colony after colony became independent, and in 2001 the UK had only 13 small dependent territories. With 53 other independent countries, it forms the British Commonwealth. Although Britain's monarch is accepted as head of the Commonwealth, most of its member states are republics.

The present Commonwealth is a voluntary association of independent states. Only one of its members, Mozambique, which joined in 1995, was never a British colony (it was Portuguese). The Commonwealth's links are mainly cultural and economic, depending upon the fact that the English language is the lingua franca of all educated people in the territories that formed the British Empire, on the continuing ties of trade, and on the financial and technical aid provided by the economically developed members to the developing members.

The purpose of this paper is to study the modern influence of Great Britain culture on the ex-colonial territories of the country.

First of all history of the British colonial process will be discussed in general. The next section is considered the Commonwealth of Nations, аn intergovernmental organisation, in which enter Great Britain and almost all its former dominions, colonies and protectorates. And in the final section is considered the modern influence of Great Britain culture on the ex-colonial territories of the country.

1. History of the British colonial process

1.1 Early empire

The story of the British Empire began in 1497 when the Italian seafarer John Cabot sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in the service of King Henry VII of England and reached Newfoundland. In 1583 the explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland for Elizabeth I. By this time the Portuguese and Spanish had divided between them a considerable part of the Earth's land surface. England was already a formidable power at sea, but its seafarers were mainly freebooters (lawless adventurers) engaged in trade, piracy, and slavery. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 reinforced English sea power, which continued to be mostly privately organized. Unlike the Spanish and Portuguese, the English in the 16th century were neither missionaries nor colonists. England was a poor country, lacking the wealth of Portugal and Spain; when the English put to sea it was to seek immediate profits.

1.2 17^th, 18th century

This pattern began to change in the 17th century. Between 1623 and 1632 English settlers occupied St Kitts, Barbados, St Croix (later lost), Nevis, Antigua, and Montserrat. In 1655, Oliver Cromwell's forces took Jamaica from the Spanish, who officially acknowledged British ownership in 1760. British Honduras (now Belize) was governed as part of Jamaica until 1884, and the tiny South Atlantic island of St Helena was annexed in 1673. The attraction of the West Indies for the English lay in the sugar and rum produced there. Virginia, the first permanent English colony in mainland America, was established in 1607 by the Virginia Company, which also took over Bermuda in about 1612. Shortly after this, in 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers landed from the ship Mayflower to found the colony of Massachusetts. By 1733, the English had established 13 colonies along the Atlantic seaboard between French Canada and Spanish Florida. The colonists began to plant cotton in the 17th century, and this plantation crop was being grown on a very large scale by the late 18th century.

In 1707 England had united with Scotland to form, as Great Britain, the largest free-trade area then existing, and by the late 18th century Britain had become the leading industrial nation. Its main pattern of trade was based on the triangular trade route: British ships took manufactured goods and spirits to West Africa to exchange for slaves, whom they transported to the West Indies and the southernmost of the 13 colonies. The ships then returned to Britain with cargoes of cotton, rum, sugar, and tobacco, produced mainly by the labour of the black slaves. Britain's prosperity was bound up with the slave trade until this became illegal in 1807. By that time the importance of the slave trade had diminished and other forms of commerce had become more profitable. With other western European nations, the British had already established a string of forts in West Africa to safeguard the trade in slaves, gold, and ivory.

In 1756-63 the Seven Years' War against France - which included the capture of Quйbec (1759) by James Wolfe, the incident of the Black Hole of Calcutta (1756), and Robert Clive's victory at the Battle of Plassey (1757), India - resulted in Britain acquiring lands in Canada and India, more islands in the West Indies, and Gibraltar. Although the 13 colonies on the North Atlantic seaboard won independence as the United States of America in the American Revolution (1776-83), Britain acquired the Bahamas in 1783, and the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars - including the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) by Admiral Horatio Nelson - enabled Britain to add Malta, St Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, St Vincent, Trinidad, Tobago, part of Guiana (now Guyana), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), the Seychelles, and Cape Colony (now part of South Africa) to its empire.

1.3 Spread of science, convict settlements

In the 17th and 18th centuries the British ruling class developed a great interest in science, which had repercussions on the growth of the British Empire. Between 1768 and 1779 scientific naval expeditions commanded by Captain James Cook explored islands and coasts of the Pacific Ocean, from the entrance to the Arctic Ocean at the Bering Strait to the then unknown coasts of New Zealand and Australia.

Successive British governments showed no more interest in annexing these southern lands than they had in places elsewhere. In most cases they left the building of the empire to private individuals such as William Penn (who founded Pennsylvania) or to chartered companies, the most famous of which was the East India Company (1660-1858). An important exception was in the West Indies, where government intervention was frequent because many members of Parliament had commercial interests there.

One reason for the British government's interest in the 13 American colonies was as a dumping ground for convicts, debtors, and political prisoners, many of whom were sentenced to transportation rather than to gaol or the gallows (at that time the law provided the death sentence for stealing a sheep). American independence posed the problem for Britain of where to send its surplus prison population, so in 1788 a new convict settlement was established in Australia at Botany Bay in New South Wales, near where Sydney is now located. This territory had been recently discovered by the voyages of James Cook.

1.4 19th century, India, Hong Kong

Britain annexed New Zealand in 1840, Tristan da Cunha in 1816, the Falkland Islands in 1833, and Papua in 1884. In 1878 Turkey handed over Cyprus to a British administration.

At the heart of the British Empire was India, which was controlled not by the government but by the East India Company, whose power extended from Aden (annexed in 1839) in Arabia to Penang (leased in 1786) in Malaya. Both places were vital ports of call for company vessels travelling between Britain, India, and China. Politically, the East India Company was the most powerful private company in history. It controlled India partly by direct rule and partly by a system of alliances with Indian princes, whose powers and security were backed by the company's powerful army. Finally, in 1857, a mutiny by its Indian troops terminated the company's affairs, and in 1858 the British government took over its functions. In 1877, Benjamin Disraeli, then prime minister, made Queen Victoria Empress of India. Her new empire included present-day India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and most of Myanmar (Burma). In 1887 the nearby Maldive Islands became a British protectorate.

The acquisition of Hong Kong was typical of the way in which western countries seized colonies between about 1840 and 1890. In 1839 China stopped the importation by the East India Company of opium, which China complained was having a debilitating effect upon its people. When British and American ships defied the ban, Chinese officials publicly destroyed 20,000 cases of the drug. Faced with the collapse of its Far Eastern operations (for without the opium trade it was not financially viable), the East India Company persuaded the British government, then led by Lord Palmerston, to declare war on China. As a result of the Opium War, Britain gained Hong Kong island. Kowloon was added to the colony after a second Opium War (1856-58) and more mainland territory was taken in 1898.

1.5 Imperialism

By this time British policy was becoming imperialistic. In the last quarter of the 19th century Britain tended to annex countries not just for commercial gain but for reasons of national prestige. The commercial operations of the East India Company extended into the East Indies, a vast area that had come under Dutch control. When the Netherlands were occupied by the French under Napoleon (1793-1815), the East India Company occupied parts of the Dutch East Indies, including Malacca (now called Melaka) in 1795. Malacca was briefly restored to the Dutch in 1818, but the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 recognized the Malay Peninsula as being within the British sphere of influence, and in 1825 the Dutch exchanged Malacca for Benkoelen in Sumatra. When the British government took over from the East India Company it also acquired the Straits Settlements. These comprised Penang (ceded to the Company by the sultan of Kedah in 1786), Malacca, and Singapore, founded by Stamford Raffles in 1819. Increasingly the British became involved in the affairs of the Malay Sultanates, several of which sought British protection from the domination of Siam (now Thailand). By 1914 all of Malaya was under British control. In Borneo, Sarawak had become the personal possession of James Brooke, a freebooting, British ex-soldier of the East India Company. Present-day Sabah became a British protectorate in 1888, following concessions made to the British North Borneo Company by the sultan of Salu in 1777-78. Also in 1888, the once powerful adjoining sultanate of Brunei, which had formerly possessed Sarawak and Sabah, itself came under British protection. This vast empire had been assembled without any coordinated plan, and it was held together and administered by whatever means seemed most expedient for a particular place. Pirates, traders, soldiers, explorers, financial speculators, missionaries, convicts, and refugees all played a part in creating the British Empire, but increasingly British governments were drawn in to maintain it. To protect India's northwest frontier, the British army fought two wars with Afghanistan (1839-41 and 1878-80) and in 1904 invaded Tibet.

1.6 Colonizing Africa

Before the 1880s the British showed little interest in Africa apart from Cape Colony, although the Scottish explorer Mungo Park explored the Niger River 1795-97. However, during the 19th century, there developed a `scramble for Africa'. This was partly to secure the mineral wealth of the continent, partly to secure markets against foreign competition, partly to spread Christianity and British culture, and partly to provide an outlet for British adventurers. The first large group of British settlers landed in the Cape in 1820. They were bitterly resented by the Boers, the descendants of Dutch Protestants who had settled in the Cape nearly 200 years earlier. When slavery was ended throughout the British Empire in 1833, the Boers were forced to free their African slaves. Although the British government gave them generous financial compensation, the Boers regarded this further interference by the British as too much to accept. In 1835 they began the `Great Trek' northward to found the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. By 1856 the British had recognized the independence of these states but had themselves founded a new colony in Natal. After heavy fighting, beginning in 1879, the British conquered the African military state of Zululand and added it to Natal in 1897.

The discovery of diamonds and gold in southern Africa led to disputes between the Boers and the British. Britain annexed the South African Republic, but the Boers struck back. They won the first of the South African Wars, or Boer Wars, (1880-81), and regained the lost territory, which the Boers renamed the Transvaal Republic.

Britain had maintained a few forts in West Africa, where gold and ivory kept their importance after the slave trade ended. An exception was Sierra Leone, where Granville Sharp, an Englishman opposed to slavery, established a settlement of freed American slaves in 1787. This coastal strip of Sierra Leone was made a British colony in 1808. In 1821 the British established a coastal colony around the tiny town of Bathurst on the River Gambia. Only later were colonies established on the coasts of present-day Ghana and Nigeria. Basutoland (now Lesotho) became a British protectorate in 1868, at the request of Moshoeshoe I (1790-1870), paramount chief of the Sothi nation.

From the 1880s onward Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain vied with each other to establish colonies in Africa. British protectorates were established to cover roughly the area of present-day Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria. Because of the climate, which gave West Africa its reputation as `the white man's grave', these colonies attracted very few British settlers.

In East Africa the situation was different, for on high ground the land proved suitable for settlement by white colonists. Private companies under charter from the British government established control over Kenya in 1888 and Uganda in 1890. Uganda became a British protectorate in 1894, and Kenya became the East African Protectorate in 1895. In 1890 Germany, which had already relinquished its interests in Uganda, ceded Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) to Britain in exchange for Heligoland, an island off the German coast. By 1900 all Kenya and Uganda was under the control of the British government. Northern Somalia had come under direct control of the British in 1884. By the time the European scramble for Africa ended, Britain held the second-largest share of the continent.

British missionaries of all denominations spread the Christian religion throughout the empire. They made proportionately little impression in places where the religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam dominated, but even in those areas their converts numbered several millions. Their success was greater in the West Indies and in Africa south of the Sahara.

David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary, explored much of the area that is now Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Like several other intrepid explorers, who included Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, and Samuel Baker, Livingstone explored the River Nile. His journeys also took him to the Zambezi River and to lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa. Following Livingstone's journeys, the Free Church of Scotland set up a mission in Nyasaland (now Malawi) in 1875, and the country became a British protectorate in 1891. Bechuanaland (now Botswana) became a British protectorate in 1885.

In the late 1880s the British South Africa Company, which was largely controlled by Cecil Rhodes, negotiated land mineral rights from African chiefs in Matabeleland and Mashonaland. By 1889 the company had conquered these two territories and united them as Rhodesia, named after Rhodes. The company intervened further northwards, stamping out the slave trade and bringing that area under their control too. They named it Northern Rhodesia (which later became Zambia).

In 1890 Rhodes became prime minister of Cape Colony, at a time when tension was again mounting between the Boers and the British. The Boers resisted encroachments in their territories by British speculators interested in the diamonds and gold known to exist there. After three years of the second of the South African Wars, or Boer Wars (1899-1902), the two Boer republics, plus Swaziland, were annexed by Britain.

1.7 Dominions and independence

Britain took care not to lose any more colonies through wars of independence. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were a special case; their great distance from Britain made it desirable that they should have a great measure of control over their own affairs. The concept of self-government was first formulated in the `Report on the Affairs of British North America' in 1839 by Lord John Durham, Canada's governor-general. This report recommended that `responsible government' (the acceptance by governors of the advice of local ministers) should be granted to Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quйbec), which should be merged into one. The merge took place immediately, but responsible government did not come into being until 1847 under the governorship of Lord Elgin, the son-in-law of Lord Durham.

This pattern was subsequently applied to the other Canadian provinces and to the Australian colonies. The Australian colonies had attained responsible government by 1859, except for Western Australia, which attained it in 1890. New Zealand obtained responsible government in all but native affairs in 1856, and this exception disappeared by 1870. Cape Colony achieved responsible government in 1872, followed by Natal in 1893.

The British devised a further intermediate stage between colonial status and independence, which came to be called dominion status. Canada became a dominion in 1867, Australia in 1901, New Zealand in 1907, and the Union of South Africa (Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal) by 1910. These constitutional changes were effected with assent from the dominion states. Eire (southern Ireland), which had been part of the UK, also became a dominion as the Irish Free State in 1922, but it did not acknowledge this status and declared itself independent in 1938. Eire's breakaway was accomplished only with much violence and bitterness.

To improve communications with India, Disraeli purchased for Britain shares in the Suez Canal in 1875. This led to British involvement in Egypt, a country supposedly under Turkish suzerainty, but in fact largely independent. In 1882 Egypt came under British occupation, and shortly after this British and Egyptian troops were jointly involved in Sudan, to the south. By 1899, a protectorate had been established, setting up a condominium (joint sovereignty) called Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The great dream of Rhodes had been that one day the British Empire in Africa would stretch from the Cape to Cairo. By 1899 this dream was almost a reality; only German East Africa (Tanganyika) stood in the way. The defeat of Germany and Turkey in World War I not only gave Britain a mandate over Tanganyika, but also over Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, and part of Cameroon. German Southwest Africa (now Namibia) went to South Africa, German New Guinea to Australia, German Samoa to New Zealand, and the Pacific island of Nauru to Britain, Australia, and New Zealand jointly.

1.8 20th century

Loyalty was strong throughout most of the British Empire in World War I, but by the 1920s the Empire had reached its zenith. As well as the places already mentioned, it included part of Antarctica and many small territories, mainly Pacific islands. Its continuance depended upon British superiority at sea, upon the ability of Britain to maintain its industrial and financial supremacy, and also upon the psychological acceptance of British (and Western) superiority. However, all three factors were waning. In the 1920s there had been stirrings in India, where Mahatma Gandhi led unarmed protests, called `civil disobedience', to British rule. By 1939 the end of all empires was near, and World War II speeded their end. After the war ended the rest of the empire began to break up. India was the first to acquire independence, dividing as it did so into two countries, India and Pakistan. The rest of the colonies then became independent, most of them before 1980. With the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 Britain was left with only 13 small dependencies.

The colonies of the British Empire sent more than 2.5 million men to fight for Britain's cause during World War I. India was the largest single provider, contributing nearly 1.3 million men. It is estimated that Canada sent some 418,000 men overseas, Australia contributed 322,000, South Africa more than 146,000, New Zealand some 124,000, and Rhodesia over 6,800. Large numbers were also provided by the West Indies and other parts of Africa and Asia. Colonial troops were deployed on most of the major battlefronts: the Western Front in France, South West Africa (now Namibia), Egypt, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), Palestine, Egypt, and Gallipoli in Turkey. They also served in the Royal Navy and the Royal Flying Corps. Figures vary, but by the end of the war, while Britain had lost an estimated 702,500 men, the colonial armies combined had lost over 206,000.

Soon after Britain entered World War I in August 1914, men from British colonies all over the world rushed to volunteer. Although the war was being fought many thousands of kilometres away, Britain's colonies did not feel any less involved. Britain, the colonial mother country, needed their help, and the strong spirit of loyalty within the British Empire made Germany the enemy of all the Empire's subjects. This feeling of togetherness was particularly strong in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, where an estimated 10% of adult males volunteered, and Rhodesia, where it is suggested that about 50% of all adult white males went to war. Support was also prevalent among many, but not all, of the people of India and among English-speaking South Africans. The Indian Army was drawn from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Burma, but many anti-British radicals in India took the opportunity to organize against the Empire in India during the war. In South Africa the Boer population opposed any attack on South West Africa, which was under German control. The Boers were of Dutch descent and had been given military and financial aid by the German government during the Boer War (1899-1902) against Britain.

Troops from the colonies included white colonists, or their descendants, and colonized peoples. Cultural misunderstandings were regular. The superior attitudes adopted by some of the aristocratic British officers towards the colonial troops under their command caused resentment, and bitterness rose at their perceived recklessness when using colonial forces. During the fruitless Gallipoli campaign the death rate among the Anzac troops (combined Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) exceeded a third. It is estimated that over 70,000 Indian soldiers served on the Western Front in France, of whom about 21,500 were either killed or wounded. Many highly trained and skilled soldiers of the Indian Army were treated as little more than labourers. The white commanders refused to let most of these Indian troops serve in the trenches, confining them to tasks such as moving weapons up to the front, even though they showed themselves as brave and committed as their white counterparts when they were allowed to fight. Many of the thousands of black volunteer soldiers who came from colonies such as Jamaica, Barbados, Kenya, and Nigeria suffered the same prejudice. Black American soldiers received similar treatment from their white officers.

The support of nations not immediately involved in the war was crucial to the eventual victory of the Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia) and its allies over the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and their allies). Britain was able to campaign over many more parts of the world than would otherwise have been possible because of the involvement of its colonies. The combined effort of the British Empire reflects the truly global nature of World.

2. Commonwealth of Nations

2.1 Value of concept

The Commonwealth of Nations, usually known as the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly parts of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values and goals, as outlined in the Singapore Declaration. [1] These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism, and world peace. [2]

The Commonwealth is not a political union, but an intergovernmental organisation through which countries with diverse social, political, and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status. Its activities are carried out through the permanent Commonwealth Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General; biennial Meetings between Commonwealth Heads of Government; and the Commonwealth Foundation, which facilitates activities of non-governmental organisations in the so-called 'Commonwealth Family'. The symbol of this free association is the Head of the Commonwealth, which is a ceremonial position currently held by Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth II is also the monarch, separately, of sixteen members of the Commonwealth, informally called the Commonwealth realms. As each realm is an independent kingdom, the Queen, as monarch, holds a distinct title for each, though, by a Prime Ministers' Conference in 1952, all include the style Head of the Commonwealth at the end; for example: Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Australia and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. Beyond the realms, the majority of the members of the Commonwealth have separate heads of state: thirty-two members are republics, and five members have distinct monarchs: the Sultan of Brunei; the King of Lesotho; the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (or King) of Malaysia; the King of Swaziland; and the King of Tonga.

2.2 History

The Commonwealth is the successor of the British Empire. In 1884, while visiting Australia, Lord Rosebery described the changing British Empire, as some of its colonies became more independent, as a «Commonwealth of Nations». [3]

Conferences of British and colonial Prime Ministers had occurred periodically since 1887, leading to the creation of the Imperial Conferences in the late 1920s. [4] The formal organisation of the Commonwealth developed from the Imperial Conferences, where the independence of the self-governing colonies and especially of dominions was recognised. The Irish Oath of Allegiance, agreed in 1921, included the Irish Free State's adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations. In the Balfour Declaration at the Imperial Conference in 1926, Britain and its dominions agreed they were equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. This relationship was eventually formalised by the Statute of Westminster in 1931.

After World War II, the Empire was gradually dismantled, partly owing to the rise of independence movements in the subject territories and partly owing to the British Government's straitened circumstances resulting from the cost of the war. In 1949, the word «British» was dropped from the title of the Commonwealth to reflect its changing nature. [5] Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar, 1948), and Aden (1967) are the only former colonies not to have joined the Commonwealth upon post-war independence. Among the former British protectorates and mandates, those which never became members of the Commonwealth are Egypt (independent in 1922), Iraq (1932), Transjordan (1946), Palestine (most of which became the state of Israel in 1948), Sudan (1956), British Somaliland (which became part of Somalia, 1960), Kuwait (1961), Bahrain (1971), Oman (1971), Qatar (1971), and the United Arab Emirates (1971). The Republic of Ireland left the Commonwealth upon becoming a republic in 1949. However, the Ireland Act 1949 passed by the Parliament of Westminster gave citizens of the Republic of Ireland a status similar to that of citizens of the Commonwealth in UK law.

Rwanda (since 2003), Sudan, Algeria, Madagascar and Yemen have applied to join the Commonwealth, and there was some interest expressed by Israel (being formerly administered by the United Kingdom) and the Palestinian National Authority. [20]

Other eligible applicants could come from any of the remaining inhabited British overseas territories, Crown dependencies, Australian external territories and Associated States of New Zealand if any become fully independent. [21] Many such jurisdictions are already directly represented within the Commonwealth, particularly through the Commonwealth Family. [22]

The issue of countries with constitutional structures not based on a shared Crown, but which wished to remain members of the Commonwealth, was resolved in April 1949 at a Commonwealth prime ministers' meeting in London. Under this London Declaration, India agreed that, when it became a republic, in January 1950, it would accept the British Sovereign as a «symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and, as such, Head of the Commonwealth».

The other Commonwealth countries in turn recognised India's continuing membership of the association. At Pakistan's insistence, India was not regarded as an exceptional case and it was assumed that other states would be accorded the same treatment as India.

The London Declaration is often seen as marking the beginning of the modern Commonwealth. Following India's precedent, other nations became republics, or constitutional monarchies with monarchs different from that of the United Kingdom, while some countries retained the same monarch as the United Kingdom, but their monarchies developed differently and soon became fully independent of the British monarchy. The monarch of each Commonwealth realm, whilst the same person, is regarded as a separate legal personality for each realm.

As the Commonwealth grew, Britain and the pre-1945 dominions (a term formally dropped in the 1940s) became informally known as the «Old Commonwealth», particularly since the 1960s when some of them disagreed with poorer, African and Asian (or New Commonwealth) members about various issues at Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings. Accusations that the old, «White» Commonwealth had different interests from African Commonwealth nations in particular, and charges of racism and colonialism arose during heated debates about Rhodesia in the 1960s and 1970s, the imposition of sanctions against apartheid-era South Africa in the 1980s and, more recently, about whether to press for democratic reforms in Nigeria and then Zimbabwe.

The term New Commonwealth is also used in the United Kingdom (especially in the 1960s and 1970s) to refer to recently decolonised countries, which are predominantly non-white and developing. It was often used in debates about immigration from these countries. [6]

In recent years, the term «White Commonwealth» has been used in a derogatory sense to imply that the wealthier, white nations of the Commonwealth had different interests and goals from the non-white, and particularly the African members. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has used the term frequently to allege that the Commonwealth's attempts to force political changes in his country are motivated by racism and colonialist attitudes and that the White Commonwealth dominates the Commonwealth of Nations as a whole.

colonial independence commonwealth nation

2.3 Objectives and activities

The Commonwealth's objectives were first outlined in the 1971 Singapore Declaration, which committed the Commonwealth to the institution of world peace; promotion of representative democracy and individual liberty; the pursuit of equality and opposition to racism; the fight against poverty, ignorance, and disease; and free trade. [2] To these were added opposition to discrimination on the basis of gender by the Lusaka Declaration of 1979 (which mostly concerned racism), and environmental sustainability by the Langkawi Declaration of 1989. These objectives were reinforced by the Harare Declaration in 1991.

The Commonwealth's current highest-priority aims are on the promotion of democracy and development, as outlined in the 2003 Aso Rock Declaration, which built on those in Singapore and Harare and clarified their terms of reference, stating: «We are committed to democracy, good governance, human rights, gender equality, and a more equitable sharing of the benefits of globalisation.» The Commonwealth website lists its areas of work as: Democracy, Economics, Education, Gender, Governance, Human Rights, Law, Small States, Sport, Sustainability, and Youth.

The Commonwealth has long been distinctive as an international forum where highly developed economies (such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Singapore, and New Zealand) and many of the world's poorer countries seek to reach agreement by consensus. This aim has sometimes been difficult to achieve, as when disagreements over Rhodesia in the late 1960s and 1970s and over apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s led to a cooling of relations between the United Kingdom and African members.

Through a separate voluntary fund, Commonwealth governments support the Commonwealth Youth Programme, a division of the Secretariat with offices in Gulu (Uganda), Lusaka (Zambia), Chandigarh (India), Georgetown (Guyana) and Honiara (Solomon Islands).

3. The modern influence of Great Britain culture on the ex-colonial territories of the country

Mostly due to their history of British rule, many Commonwealth nations possess certain identifiable traditions and customs that are elements of a shared Commonwealth culture. Examples include common sports such as cricket and rugby, driving on the left, the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, common law, and the use of British rather than United States spelling conventions (see English in the Commonwealth of Nations). None of these is universal amongst, nor exclusive to, the Commonwealth, but are more commonly found within its members than elsewhere.

3.1 Language

The use of the English language in most member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was inherited from British colonisation. English is spoken as a first or second language in most of the Commonwealth. In a few countries, such as Cyprus and Malaysia, it does not have official status, but is widely used as a lingua franca. Mozambique is an exception - although English is widely spoken there, it is a former Portuguese colony which joined the Commonwealth in 1996.

Many regions, notably Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Caribbean, have developed their own native varieties of the language.

Written English as used in the Commonwealth favours British as opposed to American spelling, with the exception of Canada, which combines elements of both (however Canadian spelling more closely resembles British spelling).

Although Hong Kong and the Republic of Ireland are no longer part of the Commonwealth, the English language still has official status in these two countries.

The report of the Inter-Governmental Group on Criteria for Commonwealth Membership states that English is a symbol of Commonwealth heritage and unity.

3.1.1 Native varieties

Southern Hemisphere native varieties of English began to develop during the 19th century, with the colonisation of Australasia and South Africa. Australian English, New Zealand English and South African English are non-rhotic dialects closely related to one another and to the English spoken in southeastern England. The vocabularies of these dialects are also similar to that of English language in England, with some differences and several terms that are peculiar to each country; Australian English features also a number of North American words. Differences in grammar and usage are mostly limited to colloquial speech.

Canadian English is a variety of North American English. It shares the same roots as the English of the United States because it is based on the immigration of British Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution in the late eighteenth century. It is also influenced by Scottish, Irish and English immigration after the War of 1812. While the language has continued to change in all of these places, modern Canadian has inherited much vocabulary from the shared political and social institutions of Commonwealth countries.

The Caribbean

Caribbean English is influenced by the English-based Creole varieties spoken, but they are not one and the same. There is a great deal of variation in the way English is spoken, with a «Standard English» at the top of the social scale and creoles at the bottom. These dialects have roots in 17th-century English and African languages; unlike most native varieties of English, West Indian dialects often tend to be syllable-timed rather than stress-timed.

3.1.2 Non-native varieties

Second language varieties of English in Africa and Asia have often undergone «indigenisation»; that is, each English-speaking community has developed (or is in the process of developing) its own standards of usage, often under the influence of local languages. These dialects are sometimes referred to as New Englishes (McArthur, p. 36); most of them inherited non-rhoticity from Southern British English.

Africa

Several dialects of West African English exist, with a lot of regional variation and some influence from indigenous language. West African English tends to be syllable-timed, and its phoneme inventory is much simpler than that of Received Pronunciation; this sometimes affects mutual intelligibility with native varieties of English. A distinctive East African English is spoken in countries such as Kenya or Tanzania.

Small communities of native English speakers can be found in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia; the dialects spoken are similar to South African English.

Asia

India has the world's largest English-speaking population, although most speakers of Indian English are not native speakers. Indian English phonology is highly variable; stress, rhythm and intonation are generally different from those of native varieties. There are also several peculiarities at the levels of morphology, syntax and usage, some of which can also be found among educated speakers.

Southeast Asian English comprises Singapore English and Malaysian English; it features some influence from Chinese. Hong Kong ceased to be part of the Commonwealth in 1997. Nonetheless, the English language still enjoys the status as an official language, alongside with the Chinese language.

3.2 Religion

Not last role in culture of the former English colonies the religion has played. The Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic church - the main religion of the former English colonies.

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church, [note 1] is the world's largest Christian church, representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world's population. The Catholic Church is a communion of the Western Rite (Latin Rite) and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches (called particular churches), comprising 2,795 dioceses in 2008.

The Church's highest earthly authority in matters of faith, morality and Church governance is the Pope, currently Pope Benedict XVI, who holds supreme authority in the Church in concert with the College of Bishops, of which he is the head. [9] The Catholic community is made up of an ordained ministry and the laity; members of either group may belong to organized religious communities.

The Church defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity. It operates social programs and institutions throughout the world, including schools, universities, hospitals, missions and shelters, as well as organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Internationalis and Catholic Charities that help the poor, families, the elderly and the sick.

Through apostolic succession, the Church believes itself to be the continuation of the Christian community founded by Jesus in his consecration of Saint Peter, a view shared by some historians. [17] It has defined its doctrines through various ecumenical councils, following the example set by the first Apostles in the Council of Jerusalem. [18] On the basis of promises made by Jesus to his apostles, described in the Gospels, the Church believes that it is guided by the Holy Spirit and so protected from falling into doctrinal error.

Catholic beliefs are based on the deposit of Faith (containing both the Holy Bible and Sacred Tradition) handed down from the time of the Apostles, which are interpreted by the Church's teaching authority. Those beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed and formally detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Formal Catholic worship, termed the liturgy, is regulated by Church authority. The Eucharist, one of seven Church Sacraments and the key part of every Catholic Mass or Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy, is the center of Catholic worship.

With a history spanning almost two thousand years, the Church is one of the world's oldest institutions and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilization since at least the 4th century. In the 11th century, a major split (the Great Schism) occurred between Eastern and Western Christianity, largely as a result of disagreements over papal primacy. The Eastern Orthodox churches became a separate entity from the Catholic Church in the resulting schism. Eastern Churches who remained in or later re-established communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, form the Eastern Catholic churches. In the 16th century, partly in response to the Protestant schism, the Church engaged in a substantial process of reform and renewal, known as the Counter-Reformation.

Although the Church maintains that it is the «one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church» founded by Jesus Christ where one can find the fullness of the means of salvation, it also acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can make use of other Christian communities to bring people to salvation. It believes that it is called by the Holy Spirit to work for unity among all Christians, a movement known as ecumenism. Modern challenges facing the Church include the rise of secularism and opposition to its stances on abortion, euthanasia, contraception, and sexual morality.

3.3 Sport

Due to the legacy of British colonial rule, many Commonwealth nations play similar sports that are considered quintessentially 'Commonwealth' in character, including cricket, both codes of rugby, and netball. [31] This has led to the development of friendly national rivalries between the main sporting nations that have often defined their relations with each another. Indeed, said rivalries provided a constant in their relationships, even as the Empire transformed into the Commonwealth: preserving close ties. Externally, playing these sports is seen to be a sign of sharing a certain Commonwealth culture; the adoption of cricket at schools in Rwanda is seen as symbolic of the country's move towards Commonwealth membership. [32]

Besides the Commonwealth Games, a number of other sporting competitions are organised on a Commonwealth basis, through championship tournaments such as the Commonwealth Judo Championships, Commonwealth Rowing Championships, Commonwealth Sailing Championships, and Commonwealth Shooting Championships. Boxing has long maintained Commonwealth titles, administered by the Commonwealth Boxing Council, for the best boxers in the Commonwealth.

3.4 Literature

The shared history of British presence has also produced a substantial body of writing in many languages, known as Commonwealth Literature. There is an Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, with nine chapters worldwide and an international conference is held every three years.

In 1987, the Commonwealth Foundation established the Commonwealth Writers Prize 'to encourage and reward the upsurge of new Commonwealth fiction and ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin'. Caryl Phillips won the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2004 for A Distant Shore. Mark Haddon won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2004 Best First Book prize worth Ј3,000 for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Although not affiliated with the Commonwealth in an official manner, the prestigious Man Booker Prize is awarded annually to an author from a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland. This honour is one of the highest in literature.

Conclusion

During research it became clear that Great Britain was formed as powerful colonial country since 16 century, Great Britain had a large quantity of colonial territories in Asia, Africa, in Northern and South America, Australia and Ocenia. In the course of colonisation it enthralled countries being at lower step of development and imposed them culture. Language, religion, sport, literature were formed in the former English colonies (nowadays the Commonwealth of Nations) on the basis of English culture.

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