commonwealth, form of administration signifying government by
the common consent of the people. To Locke and Hobbes and other
17th-century writers the term meant an organized political
community similar to what is meant in the 20th cent. by the word
state. Certain states of the United States are known as
commonwealths (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
Kentucky), and the federated states of Australia are known
collectively as the Commonwealth of Australia. In the same
collective sense, the now independent components of the former
British Empire and Britain's remaining dependencies are
described as the Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth in
English history was the government set up by the victorious army
power following the English civil war and the execution (1649)
of King Charles I. The Commonwealth was dominated from the
outset by Oliver Cromwell, who by the Instrument of Government
(1653) was made lord protector of the Commonwealth. The
subsequent government is usually known as the Protector