Free state (polity)

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Free state is a term occasionally used in the official titles of some

nation-state. Sometimes "free state" is used as a synonym for "republic
".

The republican sense of the term derives from libera res publica (literally, "the free public thing/affair"), a term used by Latin historians for the period of the Roman Republic, though not all "free states" have been republics. The historical German free states and the Orange Free State of Southern Africa were republican in form, however the Congo Free State and Irish Free State were governed under forms of monarchy.

Overview

Republican England

English Parliament, in the act forming the Commonwealth of England of 1649 to 1660, declared that "England is confirmed to be a Commonwealth and Free State and shall from henceforth be Governed as a Commonwealth and Free State."[1] The Commonwealth had a republican constitution.

Germany

Flag of the modern Free State of Bavaria

In

Danzig was split off from Germany in 1919, becoming the Free City of Danzig
.

After the Nazis came to power, they abolished the concept of a federal republic and all the states and re-organized Germany into

Gaue
, with appointed leadership.

The states were re-established within the

Saxony (successor (but not de jure) to the Kingdom of Saxony) used the name again in 1992 and Thuringia
began to use it for the first time in 1993.

Free Cities

Historically, Germany had

Imperial Free Cities, who were subject only to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1871 Germany knew three Free Cities, Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck; the last lost its status in 1937. Since 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has Hamburg (Freie und Hansestadt, Free and Hanseatic
City) and Bremen (Freie Hansestadt), as well as Berlin, as a city which is also a state. Like the Free States these three cities have no special rights in the federation.

Africa

Flag of the now defunct Orange Free State

In

Afrikaans) and is today used in the title of its successor, Free State
; both entities were established as republican in form.

In contrast, the Congo Free State came into being between 1877 and 1884 as a private kingdom or dictatorship of King Leopold II of Belgium. In this case, the term free emphasised the new state's freedom from major colonial powers and the Belgian parliament, as the colony was ruled only by the king.

Irish Free State

The modern Republic of Ireland was known from 1922–1937 as the Irish Free State.

The

British monarch. The term free state was deliberately chosen as a literal translation of the Irish word saorstát. At the time in which Irish nationalists (who generally favoured a republican form of state) were negotiating the secession of most of Ireland from the United Kingdom, the word saorstát was a commonly used Irish-language word for republic. The British did not wish to permit the creation of an Irish republic (which would mean severing all links with the British crown) and so insisted that the literal translation of saorstát be used in the new state's English title instead.[2]
The term saorstát thus represented a compromise in terminology: constitutional monarchists could accept it as a less explicit rejection of the monarchy than the term republic itself, while republicans could choose to interpret it as signifying a republic by any other name.

Puerto Rico

Flag of the Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico ("Associated Free State of Puerto Rico")

The official Spanish name of the

United States Constitution
does not automatically apply in Puerto Rico.

List of 'free states'

Contemporary

Historical

Germany

See also

References