Impacts of other European colonial powers establishing similar political associations to that of The Commonwealth?

how

The commonwealth of nations is a certain anomaly within the landscape of decolonisation and marks a vital difference between how the British Empire decolonised to how the other European powers did so, though I think it could have be replicated. I think the Russian and French empires had the most potential to do so but the issue would be in the French case the lack of monarchy which seems to have been an integral part of the commonwealth surviving and in the Russian case if the Russian Empire survives then why would they relinquish control over the non Russian territories and favour 'decolonisation' of lands that they neighbour and view as having fought for. The Ottoman Empire may have also had potential to do so aswell.

For some of these European powers to have these institutions would certainly require a pre-1900 POD like the Spanish for instance retaining the American colonies as a Spanish commonwealth only consisting of Cuba, Equitorial Guinea and the Philippines is not particularily interesting.
 
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Canuck Wingnut

La Francophonie- the OTL French effort to replicate the Commonwealth (this is not how the French would describe it)- is fairly comparable to the Commonwealth in some respects. If the French had embraced decolonization very early it might well have been able to found such an organization earlier, and maintain tighter trade links and political coordination as a result.
 

kholieken

Banned
I think Commonwealth uniqueness and success is due to existence of 'settler colonies' of Canada, Australia, and NZ. Those three balance UK and provide more benefit for colonies to stay on Commonwealth.
 

overoceans

kholieken said:
I think Commonwealth uniqueness and success is due to existence of 'settler colonies' of Canada, Australia, and NZ. Those three balance UK and provide more benefit for colonies to stay on Commonwealth.
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They, along with the Brits, almost certainly provide most of the cash for running the Commonwealth. And, unlike the British, they have sometimes functioned as an honest-broker between the Motherland and the developing-world colonies(see eg. Diefenbaker and Mulroney on Apartheid South Africa).
 

Sardar

I think to fit the real definition of the Commonwealth there needs to be settler colonies, so Spain and the UK are the main ones, France is pretty far behind.
 
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