Except for the former Portuguese possession of Mozambique and the former Belgian trust territory of Rwanda, they are all former British (or partly British) colonies or self-governing colonies that have evolved into republics. Most of the Commonwealth's members achieved independence while keeping the British monarch as their own individual head of state (in a form of personal union) and later became republics within the Commonwealth by abolishing the monarchy. In some other instances, the countries became republics after achieving independence from other former British colonies (as Bangladesh did from Pakistan in 1971).