# Newest monarchy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 26, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658 "2007-02-26T00:35:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/1 "2007-02-26T00:35:07Z")
For the last 200 years it seems that most states (with exceptions ala Yugoslavia) have become republics upon independence/formation. The main exception of the 20th century have been Commonwealth Realms (who’s sovereign is also the British sovereign). So other than Commonwealth Realms what’s the most recent nation to become a monarchy upon creation? The most recent one I can think of is Vatican City. ---
**Author:** ![Horemheb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Horemheb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horemheb)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/2 "2007-02-26T00:41:19Z")
Norway became independent from Sweden in 1905, and decided (after a referendum) to become a monarchy instead of a republic. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/3 "2007-02-26T01:43:25Z")
Swaziland became independent on September 6, 1968. The king has an annual party where thousands of his most nubile subjects dance topless in front of him. Sometimes he picks a wife from the competition. I think he has something like 14. Swaziland has a life expectancy of about 32 years, according to Wikipedia. I have no idea where it ranks it terms of most recent monarchy. I’ve been there, but unfortunately missed the aforementioned “Reed” dance. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/4 "2007-02-26T02:52:15Z")
Spain reverted to a monarchy once Franco finally got around to dying, in November, 1975. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/5 "2007-02-26T02:56:24Z")
[QUOTE=cornflakes] Spain reverted to a monarchy once Franco finally got around to dying, in November, 1975. [/QUOTE] Good point (although techically the monarchy was restored in 1947, Regent Franco just left the throne vacant). But what’s the most recent nation to choose a monarchy upon independence or formation? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/6 "2007-02-26T03:10:47Z")
I presume we’re excluding: (a) Nations which reinstated an existing monarchy after getting independence from a protectorate, such as Morocco and Swaziland, (b) Nations which reinstated a monarchy, such as Spain and Greece, and © Nations founded as a republic which were turned into a monarchy, such as Albania and Central Africa.] Given those propositions, my guesses would be Bulgaria in the 1870s and Norway in 1905. (Norway was previously an autonomous part of Sweden which took full independence and elected a Danish prince as king, so it’s slightly off from the definition.) As for Vatican City, it was simply Mussolini’s Italy coming to terms with the Pope’s secular sovereignty, which had gone on for hundreds of years before Italian reunification absorbed the Papal States into Italy. As a secular monarch, the Pope was a pretender between 1870 and 1929 – but Vatican City was not a “new” monarchy. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/7 "2007-02-26T03:15:43Z")
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran were all created as monarchies in the twentieth century. Saudi Arabia and Iraq still are. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/8 "2007-02-26T03:20:13Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran were all created as monarchies in the twentieth century. Saudi Arabia and Iraq still are. [/QUOTE] SA and Jordan, surely? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/9 "2007-02-26T04:35:00Z")
Jordan, definitely – when it secured independence from the U.K., the son of the former Hashemite ruler of the Hejaz was made king (and his brother became king of Iraq). Saudi-Arabia, not exactly: the present Kingdom dates from Nejd having conquered other Arabian kingdoms, notably Hejaz and Asir, but Ibn-Saud’s ancestors ruled over Nejd well before that. This would be equivalent to dating the Italian monarchy from 1860 or 1870 instead of acknowledging that the House of Savoy had been monarchs over Piedmont and Sardinia long before that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/10 "2007-02-26T04:40:58Z")
> [@](#): > > SA and Jordan, surely? Ummmm…where’s that two hour “edit post” feature? ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/11 "2007-02-26T04:47:53Z")
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict] Swaziland became independent on September 6, 1968. The king has an annual party where thousands of his most nubile subjects dance topless in front of him. Sometimes he picks a wife from the competition. I think he has something like 14. Swaziland has a life expectancy of about 32 years, according to Wikipedia. I have no idea where it ranks it terms of most recent monarchy. I’ve been there, but unfortunately missed the aforementioned “Reed” dance. [/QUOTE] I misread this as “Switzerland”. That was an interesting few seconds… ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/12 "2007-02-26T08:19:40Z")
I suppose Emperor Bokassa is worth a mention. | Emperor of the Central African Empire from December 4, 1976, until his overthrow on September 20, 1979. | > **[Jean-Bédel Bokassa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-B%C3%A9del_Bokassa)** > > Jean-Bédel Bokassa (\[ʒɑ̃ bedɛl bɔkasa\]; 22 February 1921 – 3 November 1996), also known as Bokassa I, was a Central African political and military leader who served as the second president of the Central African Republic (CAR) and as the emperor of its successor state, the Central African Empire (CAE), from the Saint-Sylvestre coup d'état on 1 January 1966 until his overthrow in a subsequent coup in 1979. > Of this period, Bokassa served about eleven years as president and three years as self-pr... ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/13 "2007-02-26T08:49:11Z")
I was thinking of [Sealand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand), but that’s an older claim than the one above. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newest-monarchy/393658/14 "2007-02-26T16:24:02Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] I was thinking of [Sealand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand), but that’s an older claim than the one above. [/QUOTE] Well, the OP specified “states,” so I think we can safely ignore self-declared states not recognized by any nation.