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

Dominions
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.

Israel vs Palestine
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)


 * Later on this was changed to Palestine again, and an overzealous hasbarist reverted the date and also changed the "Palestine declared independence from Israel on 15 November 1988." note to one that refers to the Israeli declaration of independence. Glide08 (talk) 17:02, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

Purpose & structure
Is this just a flat list or looking to explain?

I would suggest making the 5 protectorates, and 2 mandates a separate table. In theory at least, both of these statuses are rather different than colonies. A Protectorate indicates a prior & concurrent local government. A Mandate is government by through international appointment (with specified limited rights). In both cases independence is not really FROM the UK. Shmuel A. Kam (talk) 19:12, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

President and prime minister
vwhsgsgsgsgshgwhw😺🙏☺️😕😥😕😞😳😓😧🤯😬🤯😟😳😓😳😥🙁😴🥺😳😓😬😳😖🤸🧍🧑‍🦯🛌🧍🏌️💇 102.90.46.76 (talk) 19:01, 8 July 2024 (UTC)