Dominion

A dominion was a self-governing country within the British Empire and then the British Commonwealth of Nations, primarily in the first half of the 20th century. The dominions in 1926 were Australia, Canada, the Irish Free State, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and South Africa; in 1948 Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and in 1947 India and Pakistan. In the years following the Second World War, the British Empire was refashioned into the more modern and post-colonial Commonwealth of Nations, after which the former dominions were often referred to as the Old Commonwealth. This was formalised in 1949, by which time the old dominions (with the exception of Newfoundland) had become more autonomous and independent nation states, each in its own right, either as a Commonwealth republic or a Commonwealth realm.