Free state is a term occasionally used in the official titles of somestates throughout the world with varying meanings depending on the context. In principle, the title asserts and emphasises a particular freedom of the state in question, but this is not always reflected in practice. Some states use the title to assertsovereignty or independence from foreign domination, while others have used it to assert autonomy within a largernation-state. Sometimes "free state" is used as a synonym for "republic".
The republican sense of the term derives fromlibera res publica (literally, "the free public thing/affair"), a term used byLatin historians for the period of theRoman Republic, though not all "free states" have been republics. The historicalGerman free states and theOrange Free State of Southern Africa were republican in form, while theCongo Free State andIrish Free State were governed under forms ofmonarchy.
English Parliament, in the act forming theCommonwealth 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."[1] The Commonwealth had arepublican constitution.
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InGermany, the termfree state (in German,Freistaatpronounced[ˈfʁaɪ̯ˌʃtaːt]ⓘ) comes from the 19th century as a German word forrepublic. After theGerman Revolution of November 1918, whenImperial Germany became ademocratic republic, most of theGerman states within the German Reich called themselves a Free State. Others used expressions likeRepublik orVolksstaat (people's state) – though unpopular, as that term was associated with the enemyFrance.
After the Nazis came to power, they abolished the concept of a federal republic and a system ofGaue, with appointedGauleiter leadership, largely took over the administrative functions of Germany, althoughde jure the states were not formally abolished.
AfterWorld War II states resumed their administrative role within thereduced borders ofAllied-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 andPrussian Provinces. InEast Germany all the reconstituted states used the titleLand; they ceased to exist in 1952, being replaced withdistricts. InWest Germany, onlyBavaria still called itself a Free State and that madeFreistaat an informal synonym for Bavaria. After thereunification, the re-establishedSaxony used the name again in 1992 andThuringia began to use it for the first time in 1993 (itsWeimar-erapredecessor having always beenLand Thüringen).
Historically, Germany hadImperial Free Cities, who were subject only to theEmperor of theHoly Roman Empire. During theFrench Revolutionary andNapoleonic Wars the empire was substantially reorganised. In particular the 1803Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 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 theGerman Confederation was established by theCongress 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 andFrankfurt. Frankfurt was annexed byPrussia in 1866 following theAustro-Prussian War; theNorth German Confederation was established in place of the German Confederation in 1867, which became theGerman Empire in 1871. Lübeck lost its status in 1937 (Greater Hamburg Act). Since 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has Hamburg (Freie und Hansestadt, Free andHanseatic City) and Bremen (Freie Hansestadt), 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 theVersailles Treaty,Danzig (Gdańsk) was split off from Germany in 1920, becoming theFree City of Danzig (Freie Stadt Danzig). Napoleon had alsoestablished Danzig as a free city in 1807.
InSouth Africa, the termfree state was used in the title of the nineteenth centuryOrange Free State (Oranje Vrystaat inAfrikaans) and is today used in the title of its successor,Free State; both entities were established as republican in form.
In contrast, theCongo Free State came into being between 1877 and 1884 as a private kingdom ordictatorship ofKing Leopold II of Belgium. In this case, the termfree emphasised the new state's freedom from major colonial powers and the Belgian parliament, as the colony was ruled only by the king.
TheIrish Free State of 1922–1937 was adominion of theBritish Empire. The termfree state was deliberately chosen as a literal translation of the Irish wordsaorstát. At the time in whichIrish nationalist leaders (who generally favoured a republican form of government) were negotiating the secession ofIreland from theUnited Kingdom, the wordsaorstát was a commonly used Irish-language word forrepublic. TheBritish 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 ofsaorstát be used in the new state's English title instead.[2] The termsaorstát 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 termrepublic itself, whileIrish republicans could choose to interpret it as signifying a republic by any other name.[citation needed]
The official Spanish name of theCommonwealth of Puerto Rico isEstado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, literally, "Associated Free 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 theUnited States Supreme Court, Puerto Rico is notfree or associated; it is only astate in the general sense, not as astate 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 theplenary 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 theInsular Cases, the Court ruled that theUnited States Constitution does not automatically apply in Puerto Rico.