Why So Many Nations in the King’s Realm Want to Say Goodbye

NYT WORLD: Why So Many Nations in the King’s Realm Want to Say Goodbye
By Damien Cave
Section: World
Source: New York Times
Published Date: May 5, 2023 at 03:00AM

Whether through a hard break or a soft fade in ties, nations that have kept the British monarch as their head of state are moving toward separation.

The era of warm, wave-and-smile relations between the British monarchy and its distant realms has come to an end. Many of the former colonies that still formally swear allegiance to King Charles III are accelerating efforts to cut ties with the crown and demanding restitution and a deeper reckoning with the empire that the royal family has come to represent. Jamaica is moving rapidly toward a referendum that would remove King Charles as the nation’s head of state, with a reform committee meeting regularly on the verdant grounds where colonial rulers and slave owners once lived. Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Bahamas and nearly every other country with similar systems of constitutional monarchy have also signaled support for becoming republics completely independent of Britain in the years to come. The chorus of calls for British apologies, reparations and repatriation — of everything from India’s Kohinoor diamond to sculptures from Benin and Easter Island — has also grown louder, placing the new king in a vexing position. Charles represents nearly 1,000 years of unbroken royal lineage; he also now stands on a volatile fault line between Britain, where much of that history tends to be romanticized, and a group of forthright former colonies demanding that he confront the harsh realities of his country’s imperial past.

Read More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/world/europe/coronation-british-realms.html