US commonwealth states

Quote from: 360 overstand on December 26, 2010, 10:55:26 PM

the 4 commonwealths.. what exactly differentiates them from statehood.

The common wealth is actually a state under the jurisdiction of a so called sovereign monarch which operates first as a colony of the Crown then evolves to operate independently as a state.

In the case of Common Wealth of Virginia (my present location) this monarch is more specifically most likely originally Queen Elizabeth I whom the Virginia colony was named for in his-tory (the virgin Queen etc etc etc).

The common wealth of Kentucky was originally part of VA. "Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 it became the 15th state to join the Union."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky

The commonwealth of Pennsylvania was also a colony of the crown...
"On March 12, 1664, King Charles II of England gave James, Duke of York a Grant that included all of the lands included in the original Virginia Company of Plymouth Grant as well as other lands."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania#History

Massachusetts I have not found the monarch responsible...

wiki-----------
The Colony of Virginia (also known frequently as the Virginia Colony, the Province of Virginia, and occasionally as the Dominion and Colony of Virginia) was the English colony in British America that existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution (as a British colony after 1707). The name Virginia was first applied by Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth I in 1584. After the English Civil War in the mid 17th century, the Virginia Colony was nicknamed "The Old Dominion" by King Charles II for its perceived loyalty to the English monarchy during the era of the Commonwealth of England.

After independence from Great Britain in 1783 (Treaty of Paris), a southeastern portion of the original Virginia Colony became the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of the original thirteen states of the United States, adopting as its official slogan, "The Old Dominion." After the United States was formed, the entire states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, and portions of Ohio were all later created from the territory encompassed earlier by the Colony of Virginia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_Virginia

Wiki---------------
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state.

Fourteen of the current and all former realms were once British colonies that evolved into independent states, the exceptions being the United Kingdom (UK) itself and Papua New Guinea, which was formed in 1975 as a union of the former German New Guinea — administered by Australia as an international trusteeship before independence — and the former British New Guinea — legally the territory of Papua, administered for the UK by Australia since 1905. The first realms to emerge were colonies that had already previously attained the status of a self-governing Dominion within the British Empire.

For a time, the older term of Dominion was retained to refer to these non-British realms, even though their actual status had changed with the granting of full legislative independence. The word is still sometimes used today, though increasingly rarely, as the word realm was formally introduced with Britain's proclamation of Elizabeth II as queen in 1952 and acquired legal status with the adoption of the modern royal styles and titles by the individual countries.[1] The qualified term Commonwealth realm is not official, and has not been used in law; rather, it is a term of convenience for distinguishing this group of realms from other countries in the Commonwealth that do not share the same monarch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_realm

So basically the commonwealth states in the USA are states which started out as colonies of the (British* citation needed) Crown and then evolved to act independently as a state. The difference between a state and a commonwealth is this...
A common wealth is a state
A state is not necessarily a common wealth
A state answers to the Federal govt constitution etc etc etc
A commonwealth state also answers to the Feds BUT has a history of being loyal to the crown.

at essence the big factor is JURISDICTION or of the territories autonomy.Who is in power?

"The Commonwealth of Nations — formerly the "British Commonwealth" — is a voluntary association of 54 independent sovereign states, most of which are former British colonies, or dependencies of these colonies with three exceptions, Mozambique (which was a Portuguese possession), Rwanda (which was a Belgian mandate) and Cameroon[8] (which was partly a German territory and partly French and British colony) plus the United Kingdom itself. The Commonwealth's membership includes both republics and monarchies. The head of the Commonwealth of Nations is Queen Elizabeth II. She also reigns as monarch directly in a number of states, known as Commonwealth realms, notably the United Kingdom, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Jamaica, and New Zealand. The Commonwealth of Nations is sometimes referred to as the New Commonwealth in a British context."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth#Commonwealth_of_Nations