Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said he plans to hold a referendum on separating from the monarchy within the next few years, according to Bloomberg.State of play: Some Caribbean nations are already putting together plans to break away from the monarchy. Barbados already cast off the monarchy as a head of state, becoming a republic and replacing the queen with a president back in 2021, Axios reports.Prince William and Princess Kate's royal trip in June was deemed "tone deaf" and a callback to colonialism. The latest royal visits have only stoked concerns from these countries.What they're saying: “The accession of Charles is of course putting this debate front and center: What are we doing with this British, distant, White monarch as our head of state?” Kate Quinn, an associate professor of Caribbean history at University College London, told the Washington Post.Ĭaribbean nations have been recently reconsidering their future with the UK in part amid the Black Lives Matter movement and criticism of how the monarchy treated migrants during World War II, according to the Washington Post. Four of the countries - Gabon, Togo, Mozambique and Rwanda - joined the commonwealth without any connection to the British empire.The 1949 London Declaration allowed republics and other countries to join the Commonwealth of Nations. The remaining countries are independent of the monarchy but are still within the Commonwealth.Those 14 countries include Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.Within the 56 countries, there are 14 realms that will have King Charles III as their monarch. The big picture: Multiple Commonwealth countries - a voluntary association of 56 countries, many of them republics that used to be under British rule - may sever ties with the monarchy over its legacy of colonialism.Ĭontext: The Commonwealth's 56 countries represent about 2.5 billion people, more than a third of the world's population. The passing of Queen Elizabeth II - and the ascent of King Charles III to the throne - comes as several Commonwealth nations are re-evaluating their relationship to the British monarchy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |