Reich Conference
Conference Standing v. l. from right: Walter Stanley Monroe (Newfoundland), Gordon Coates (New Zealand), Stanley Bruce (Australia), Barry Hertzog (South African Union), William Thomas Cosgrave (Irish Free State)
. l. To right: Stanley Baldwin (United Kingdom), King George V , William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canada)
Empire conferences ( Engl. Imperial Conferences ) were irregularly held meeting of heads of government of the United Kingdom and the self-governing colonies and dominions of the British Empire . Before 1907 they were referred to as Colonial Conferences . The venue for the conferences was London in 1887, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1911, 1921, 1923, 1926, 1930 and 1937 . They took place in Ottawa in 1894 and 1932 .
Originally, the imperial conferences were intended as a sign of the unity of the Empire. They developed into negotiation forums on questions of economic and military cooperation. After all, they served the Dominion governments to shed the last vestiges of their colonial status and become sovereign states.
Two conferences brought far-reaching changes: At the 1926 Reich Conference, the heads of government agreed on the Balfour Declaration , which established the equality of the Dominions with the United Kingdom. The Statute of Westminster , negotiated at the Reich Conference in 1930 and enacted a year later, removed the legislative sovereignty of the British Parliament over the Dominions.
From 1944 onwards, the Commonwealth of Nations was replaced by less formal Prime Ministers' Meetings . These were renamed " Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings" in 1971 and have been held every two years since then.
Web links
- Colonial and Imperial Conferences ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
Individual evidence
- ^ Stuart Mole: Seminars for statesmen: The evolution of the Commonwealth summit . In: The Round Table Journal . No. 93 (376) , 2004, pp. 533-546 , doi : 10.1080 / 0035853042000289128 .