I’m deep diving this and Wikipedia’s explanation just isn’t doing it for me. How can one person be the head of multiple countries?
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It doesn’t even have to happen through colonisation and the after effects of it. King James VI was King of Scotland for 35 years before Queen Elizabeth I of England died and he was the next in line to be King of England (that’s a slightly more complex story but it’s close enough). England and Scotland were separate countries with the same king and remained so for a hundred years. George I of Great Britain was also Elector of Hanover which was effectively a head of state. No-one suggested Britain should merge with part of (what became) Germany.
But the simple explanation for the Commonwealth was that many countries that became independent from the British Empire thought that the British political system worked reasonably well (or were convinced of that by the British diplomats negotiating the independence processes) so long as the politicians were Australian or Barbadian or Maltese etc. Barbados and Malta now have presidents, having removed the Head of the Commonwealth as Head of State and some countries moved straight to being republics when they became independent. But as the role of Head of State in a democracy which is dominated by a parliament is usually very limited and mainly ceremonial, and had for years been carried out in the various colonies by officials who were usually from that country and not from the UK, this was a simple way to make independence clear without actually having to upset systems which were working. Canada didn’t fully break from residual UK control until 1982, for instance – but was effectively close to independence for most of its modern existence.
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