This book challenges existing accounts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in which political developments are explained in terms of the rise of the nation-state. While monarchies are often portrayed as old-fashioned – as things of the past – we argue that modern monarchies have been at the centre of nation-construction in many parts of the world. Today, roughly a quarter of states define themselves as monarchies as well as nation-states – they are Royal Nations. This is a global phenomenon. This volume interrogates the relationship between royals and ‘their’ nations with transnational case studies from Asia, Africa, Europe as well as South America. The fifteen contributors discuss concepts and structures, visual and performative representations, and memory cultures of modern monarchies in relation to rising nationalist movements. This book thereby analyses the worldwide significance of the Royal Nation.

“In its totality, this brilliant, timely book succeeds in recasting monarchy as a truly global and shockingly modern mechanism of political theory and practice.” (Kiri Paramore, Leiden University, the Netherlands)

“This is an unusually coherent exercise in conducting comparative history on a global scale.” (Nile Green, UCLA, USA)

Challenges the existing historiography that portrays monarchies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as relics of the past, from a global historical perspective Interrogates the relationship between royals and ‘their’ nations with transnational case studies from Asia, Africa, Europe as well as South America Discusses concepts and structures, representations, and memory cultures of modern monarchies in relation to rising nationalist movements