Imperial Conferences

Imperial Conferences were gatherings of British Empire government leaders in London in 1887, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1911, 1921, 1923, 1926, 1930 and 1937. The 1907 conference changed the name from "Colonial Conference" and agreed that the meetings should henceforth be regular rather than taking place while overseas statesmen were visiting London for royal occasions (jubilees, coronations).

The conferences were a key forum for Dominion governments to assert their desire for increased independence, that of 1926 marking the acknowledgement that the Dominions would henceforth rank as equals to the United Kingdom within the Empire (see Balfour Declaration 1926 and Statute of Westminster 1931). After World War II, with the transfromation of the British Empire into The Commonwealth, Imperial Conferences were replaced by biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.