Related Directory Categories
- Commonwealth (53)
- British Commonwealth (32)
- British and Commonwealth Units (27)
- Commonwealth Games (20)
- Associations (18)
- Commonwealth College (14)
- Commonwealth Coast Conference (11)
- Commonwealth Coast Conference (11)
- Commonwealth Coast Conference (10)
- Military (9)
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Commonwealth (United States insular area)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about U.S. insular areas. For U.S. States that designate themselves as "Commonwealths", see Commonwealth (United States). For other uses of the term, see Commonwealth.
In the terminology of the United States insular areas, a Commonwealth is an organized territory or colony that has established with the Federal Government a more highly developed relationship, which may be embodied in a written mutual agreement. There are currently two United States insular areas holding the status of commonwealth, the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico. In 1976, Congress approved the mutually negotiated Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in Political Union with the United States. In the case of Puerto Rico there is no such written mutual agreement.
Of the current U.S. insular areas, the term was first used by Puerto Rico in 1952 as its formal name in English ("Commonwealth of Puerto Rico") since a strict translation of its name in Spanish would have been unacceptable to the U.S. Congress. The formal name in Spanish for Puerto Rico is "Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico," which translates literally as "Associated Free State of Puerto Rico" or as Free Associated State (a state in "free association"). It is important to note that regardless of the term "commonwealth" translation to spanish, Puerto Rico's relationship with United States is not based on a Compact of Free Association, which defines the political relationship between sovereign states and the United States.
The Commonwealth of the Philippines was an insular area that held commonwealth status from November 15, 1935 until July 4, 1946, when the United States recognized the independence and sovereignty of the Philippines.