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Originally Posted by Kasanagi
I never quite understand the whole United Kingdom deal; If its the Kingdom, meaning whatever teh Queen have sovereignty over, shouldn't Australia be part of this?
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Originally Posted by Inaudible-Whisper
Australia was part of the British Empire. It is now independent from the UK, with it's own government.
This is a nice Geography lesson (Even for me), but a tad off-topic  |
According to Wikipedia:
When capitalized, "Commonwealth" normally refers to the 53 member
Commonwealth of Nations — formerly the "British Commonwealth" — a loose
confederation of nations formerly members of the
British Empire (with one exception:
Mozambique, which was a
Portuguese possession). The Commonwealth's membership includes both republics and monarchies and the (appointed, not hereditary) head of the Commonwealth of Nations is
Queen Elizabeth II. She also reigns as monarch directly in a number of states, known as
Commonwealth Realms, notably the
United Kingdom,
Australia,
Canada,
Jamaica and
New Zealand. The Commonwealth of Nations is sometimes referred to as the New Commonwealth in a British context.
So she has some sort of at least symbolic sovereignty in Australia. I seem to recall Australia put this up to a popular vote not too long ago and the majority chose to remain part of the Monarchy.