When it became a commonwealth, too lazy to look up the dates, but WWII finished her off and the independence of the colonies commenced. Before the war, their pound was worth $4.80 US.During the war, we had plenty of propaganda in school about another goal aside from defeating the Axis nations -- it was decided that we should learn it would be a good thing if the Brits, French, Dutch and Belgians allowed their colonies and mandates to be independent as happened over the decade or two after the war.