From ‘Imperial Federation’ to ‘British Commonwealth’: The Evolution of the Rhetoric of Imperial Unity, 1910–1921

The Imperial Federation movement aimed to unite the empire in a federal form and to counteract tendencies towards separation. Many historians have commented on the movement, but have tended to do so in broad-brush terms and do not explain the relationship between Imperial Federation and the British Commonwealth. The period from 1910 to 1921 witnessed a sharp decline in the discussion of Imperial Federation. The decline was paralleled by a rise in the use of the term ‘British Commonwealth’ as an alternative locus for discussion of the theme of imperial unity. This article will explain how the conceptual shift from ‘Imperial Federation’ to ‘British Commonwealth’ happened and what caused the transition by using the British newspapers in the Gale Primary Sources database. Dominions’ requirement for more autonomy, Irish independence and WWI might have altogether contributed to the transition by opposing the design of establishing a representative Imperial Parliament.