Dominion

In the Commonwealth of Nations, previously the British Empire, dominion is the term used to refer to a current or former territory of the shared Crown, other than the United Kingdom. The term realm is now more commonly used.

In general, a dominion is a territory or region under absolute ownership, and can also refer to supreme authority, or sovereignty. Hence it is a synonym of realm, and is often used to describe the lands reigned over by a monarch. The term originated during the development of British constitutional law, when it became the practice to refer, consecutively, to the Crown of England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom "and the dominions thereto belonging or appertaining."

However, by the mid-19th century, the term dominion was most commonly used for wholly or virtually self-governing states of the British Empire, particularly for nations which reached that stage of constitutional development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Newfoundland. Prior to attaining dominion status these states had always been Crown colonies, under direct rule from the UK and/or a self-governing colony, or they have been formed from groups of such colonies.

In the early 20th century, the main differences between a dominion and a self-governing colony were that a dominion had attained the status of "nationhood", if not unambiguous political independence, from the United Kingdom. By comparison, a self-governing colony controlled its internal affairs, but did not control foreign affairs, defence or international trade. Nations granted dominion status have tended to take over areas such as foreign affairs only gradually, sometimes taking decades to acquire full control of their foreign relations from Britain.