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." The Commonwealth had a
republican constitution.
Germany In
Germany, the term
free state (in German, ) comes from the 19th century as a German word for
republic. After the
German Revolution of November 1918, when
Imperial Germany became a
democratic republic, most of the
German states within the German Reich called themselves a Free State. Others used expressions like or (people's state) – though unpopular, as that term was associated with the enemy
France. After the Nazis came to power, they abolished the concept of a federal republic and a system of , with appointed leadership, largely took over the administrative functions of Germany, although
de jure the states were not formally abolished. After
World War II states resumed their administrative role within the
reduced borders of
Allied-occupied Germany, albeit in a substantially re-organised form, with most of the new states being formed from the merger of several previous smaller states and
Prussian Provinces. In
East Germany all the reconstituted states used the title ; they ceased to exist in 1952, being replaced with
districts. In
West Germany, only
Bavaria still called itself a Free State and that made an informal synonym for Bavaria. After the
reunification, the re-established
Saxony used the name again in 1992 and
Thuringia began to use it for the first time in 1993 (its
Weimar-era
predecessor having always been ).
Free Cities Historically, Germany had
Imperial Free Cities, who were subject only to the
Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire. During the
French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars the empire was substantially reorganised. In particular the 1803 saw the vast majority of the empire's free cities "
mediatised" to other states. The empire finally fell in 1806. Napoleon annexed the final free cities –
Hamburg,
Bremen,
Lübeck – in 1811. In 1815, with the Napoleonic Wars over the
German Confederation was established by the
Congress of Vienna in the place of the Holy Roman Empire and four free cities were re-established, now as sovereign entities within the confederation: Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck and
Frankfurt. Frankfurt was annexed by
Prussia in 1866 following the
Austro-Prussian War; the
North German Confederation was established in place of the German Confederation in 1867, which became the
German Empire in 1871. Lübeck lost its status in 1937 (
Greater Hamburg Act). Since 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has Hamburg (, Free and
Hanseatic City) and Bremen (), 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. According to the
Versailles Treaty,
Danzig (Gdańsk) was split off from Germany in 1920, becoming the
Free City of Danzig (). Napoleon had also
established Danzig as a free city in 1807.
Africa In
South Africa, the term
free state was used in the title of the nineteenth century
Orange Free State (
Oranje Vrystaat 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 was known from 1922–1937 as the
Irish Free State. The
Irish Free State of 1922–1937 was a
dominion of the
British Empire. The term
free state was deliberately chosen as a literal translation of the Irish word
saorstát. At the time in which
Irish nationalist leaders (who generally favoured a republican form of government) were negotiating the secession of
Ireland from the
United Kingdom, the word
saorstát was a commonly used Irish-language word for
republic. The
British government was opposed to the Free State being established as a republic (which would mean severing Ireland's links with the British Crown) and so insisted that the literal translation of
saorstát be used in the new state's English title instead. The term
saorstát thus represented a compromise in terminology: British officials could accept it as a less explicit rejection of Ireland's links to the Crown than the term
republic itself, while
Irish republicans could choose to interpret it as signifying a republic by any other name.
Puerto Rico The official Spanish name of the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is
Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, literally, "Free Associated State of Puerto Rico", expressing a "politically organized community” or “State,” which is simultaneously connected by a compact to a larger political system and hence does not have an independent and separate status. However, according to the
United States Supreme Court, Puerto Rico is not
free or associated; it is only a
state in the general sense, not as a
state of the Union in the U.S. constitutional sense. According to consistent U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence, Puerto Rico belongs to but is not an integral part (
Organized incorporated territory) of the United States. Moreover, the said jurisprudence has determined that regardless of what nominal or cosmetic veneer has moted Puerto Rico's political status, it is essentially a U.S. colonial territory, since it is under the
plenary powers of the U.S. Congress. At its most basic, this Supreme Court doctrine expresses that Puerto Rico is more like property, far from a free-governing community or nation, and thus "domestic in a foreign sense" (not for the taking or meddling by free foreign nations), but "foreign in a domestic sense" (not a partner or an equal). In the
Insular Cases, the Court ruled that the
United States Constitution does not automatically apply in Puerto Rico. ==List of 'free states'==