Free state (government)
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- For the term free state as it arises in United States history, see: Free state.
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Free state is an ambiguous term occasionally used in the official titles of states. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for republic but not all "free states" have been republics. While the historical German free states and the Orange Free State were republican in form, the Congo and Irish Free States were governed under forms of monarchy.
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Overview
In Germany the term free state (in German, Freistaat) was part of the full names of most Länder (federal states) during the inter-war period. The term was synonymous with republic and was introduced to emphasise the transition of Imperial Germany to the Weimar Republic after the defeat in World War I and the fact of the German Revolution, which deposed all German monarchs. Similar to how a Free City (Freistadt), like, for example, the Imperial Free Cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, were not ruled by a hereditary monarch but by an elected council of burghers, all of the free states were no longer ruled by a noble or royal head of state but by elected representatives of the citizens. The term Freistaat is still used for the states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia.
In South Africa the term free state was used in the title of the nineteenth century Orange Free State (Oranje Vrystaat in Afikaans) and is today used in the title of its successor, Free State province; 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.
The Irish Free State of 1922-1937 was a form of constitutional monarchy under the British monarch. The Irish state was a special case because the term free state was deliberately chosen as a literal translation of the Irish word saorstát. At the time in which Irish nationalists were negotiating the secession of most of Ireland from the United Kingdom the word saorstát was a commonly used Irish word for republic. The British did not wish to permit the creation of an Irish republic (which would mean severing all links with the British crown) and so insisted that the literal translation of saorstát be used in the new state's English title instead.
List of 'free states'
Extant
Historical
- Commonwealth of England (1649-1660)1
- Orange Free State (1854-1900)
- Congo Free State (1884-1908)
- Irish Free State (1922-1937)
See also
- List of extinct states
- Parliament, in the act forming the Commonwealth, declared Britain "confirmed to be a Commonwealth and free State And shall from henceforth be Governed as a Commonwealth and Free State."