Barbados is the latest to exit, having officially left the monarchy behind by swearing in a president on November 30, 2021.īarbadian leaders framed the move as a long-awaited culmination of independence: “The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind,” said Governor-General Sandra Mason in announcing the exit. Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, left in 1992. The 1970s saw the last major wave of departures, with Caribbean countries Dominica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. For countries that saw their monarchies as unwelcome remnants of colonialism, this was the final step in distancing themselves from its last vestiges. This has generally meant replacing the queen with another head-of-state figure, often a president whose role is also largely ceremonial. Nearly twenty former British territories renounced their monarchies and became republics after World War II, including India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. The royal family has long been a source of British soft power and diplomatic influence, though that has been undermined in some realms due to accusations by Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle of racism within the family. Her many trips to the Commonwealth realms have helped kindle an affection and loyalty even in countries where the republican movement is strong, such as Jamaica. Most fundamentally, the purpose of the queen is to serve as a nonpartisan symbol of the nation, constitutional continuity, and moral authority-official documents are often marked with the royal seal and the queen’s visage featured on local currency. This has happened rarely since World War II, the most notable example being Australia’s 1975 constitutional crisis, in which the governor-general dismissed a sitting prime minister. In exceptional circumstances, the Crown also has what are known as “reserve powers,” or the authority to unilaterally override other branches of government.
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