The British Empire only included colonies.
 Increasing degrees of autonomy were granted to its white settler colonies, some of which were reclassified as Dominions
 After pressure from the Irish Free State and South Africa, the 1926 Imperial Conference issued the Balfour Declaration of 1926, declaring the Dominions to be "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another" within a "British Commonwealth of Nations"

