Talk:List of countries that have gained independence from the United Kingdom

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To me the date of they achieved Dominion status should be the day considered. This is because of a few reasons.

1. It is the day that all of them consider their independence day.

2.While the Dominions lacked powers over their foreign affairs they controlled their domestic ones. If the point is that external autonomy is needed to be a country then Canada should be before 1931 as it signed the Halibut Treaty with the US in 1923 without the UK's signature. The other Dominions could also make similar claims.

3.The criteria for full outright sovereignty is too extreme in my opinion. I think it is pretty much accepted, knowingly or not that a country can be sovereign without having fully sovereign powers, If the criteria is full sovereignty then the UK is not independent as it gives up some of its sovereign powers to the EU, the ability to negotiate trade agreements for example. There are other examples such as Monaco, Micronesia, Palau, etc. Seeing as no one would argue the UK is not an independent country I don't think its a stretch to consider the Dominions independent on their date of formation.

4.Using the Statute of Westminster has some flaws in my opinion. The first being that it largely made de jure something that had been going on since after the First World War and even earlier. It also didint fully give the nations in question full powers. Canada, Australia and New Zealand only gained the ability to amend their constitutions in the 1980's. This to me shows that rather than being a date of independence, the Statute of Westminister was just a step in the continuing evolution of the Dominions.

5.One could argue that the Dominions signature on the Versailles Treaty as well as their participation in the Legaue of Nations gave them international acceptance which is the key criteria of the constitutive Theory of Statehood.

6.The declarative theory of Statehood was arguably met on the date of their formation and most certainly met before the Statute of Westminister. The theory being.

          1.Has a defined territory
          2.Permanent population
          3.A government
          4.The capacity to enter into relations with other states.

User:Barry Wom, I fail to see why listing the Philippines, Cuba, and Liberia in the notes for America is irrelevant, while listing (e.g.) Singapore in the notes for Malaysia is not.

Glide08 (talk) 12:50, 30 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Fair point; I've removed the excessive detail from the Malaysia entry. Any details of a country's history post independance is surely irrelevant. Barry Wom (talk) 13:17, 30 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Once again, the British are silencing the voices of the former colonies.

1831 is NOT a recognized date for Canada, as the Statute of Westminister merely altered some legalese around the King's position, so that instead of him being the King of the British Empire, he received an additional title as King of Canada. A paper title of little value, since his representative, the Governor General is chosen by the Canadian Prime Minister, and he does little more than rubber stamp the PM's decision. The GG has only ceremonial powers and has no more input on government decisions than any other private citizen (and probably less in most cases). Canada had been independent officially since 1867, was signing international treaties by 1871, and sat at the 1919 Paris Conference as an independent nation (despite protests by the US). Whether the King recognized Canada or not is not is no more relevant than the date the British gave up in the US. If the US can claim 1776 (which is based on the declaration of independence, not the British recognition of defeat - a date when their victory was far from assured), then Canada must claim 1867, otherwise you are using different criteria for each country - a criteria that has no relevance to those countries.

Also, that has got to be one of the worst drawn maps I have ever seen - flags randomly strewn over other entities, arrows pointing in the wrong locations (Malta being thousands of miles off), and countries are entirely missing such as Afghanistan, which achieved its independence in 1919. - NiD.29 (talk) 06:46, 12 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

These roles and their job duties changed over time. The post in 1800s may have been under a different set of laws at that time as opposed to now. New rules and laws may have been implemented and things will have changed over time. CaribDigita (talk) CaribDigita (talk) 07:12, 12 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The role certainly did change, (mostly in terms of ceremonial honours being reduced) but to use 1931 as the date of independence for Canada, a date no legitimate historian would ever choose, and which is not used in the country, ever, is DEEPLY, and deliberately insulting. Comparable to suggesting that there is no difference between the Welsh and the English or the Scots and the English or the Irish and the English, and that they are all just one people. No - worse even than that. - NiD.29 (talk) 20:34, 12 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I might be missing something here, but it doesn't appear to me that the article is stating "1931 as the date of independence for Canada" as you claim. 1931 is listed only as the date the Statue of Westminster was adopted. Barry Wom (talk) 09:09, 13 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

On 25 June 2023‎, an anonymous editor from IP address 86.17.181.144 (Amsterdam) changed the name of the state of Israel, the which declared independence from the UK on 14 May 1948, to "Palestine", with the comment: "Israel is a coloniser in itself - the facts were incorrect".

It's unfortunate that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict must extend to distortion of historically documented facts such as this. I get why many people disapprove of the existence of the State of Israel, its policies, and its historical actions. Yet, when the British Mandate over the region of Mandatory Palestine expired, no nation nor government named Palestine existed at that time. It was the Jewish People's Council that gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum on 14 May 1948 to ratify the proclamation of independence from the UK. Mandatory Palestine was formerly a colony of the Ottoman Empire, named for the colony that the Roman Empire formerly held in the same region. To list the exact date, and then claim that it was a fictional entity named Palestine that gained independence on that date, due to Israel being "a coloniser in itself", is simply dishonest.

There is a note on this row stating that "Palestine declared independence from Israel on 15 November 1988." I think that makes it more than clear that it was not the state of Palestine that declared independence from the UK in 1948.

I have reverted that edit from the anonymous editor. If they wish to challenge it, they should cite sources. Arabicas.Filerons (talk) 12:22, 4 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]