Editing Republic (section)

=== Decolonization ===
[[File:Commonwealth republics.svg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|A map of the Commonwealth republics]]

In the years following [[World War II]], most of the remaining European colonies gained their independence, and most became republics. The two largest colonial powers were France and the United Kingdom. Republican France encouraged the establishment of republics in its former colonies. The United Kingdom attempted to follow the model it had for its earlier settler colonies of creating independent [[Commonwealth realm]]s still linked under the same monarch. While most of the settler colonies and the smaller states in the [[Caribbean]] and the [[Oceania|Pacific]] retained this system, it was rejected by the newly independent countries in [[Africa]] and [[Asia]], which revised their constitutions and became [[Republics in the Commonwealth of Nations|republic]]s instead.

Britain followed a different model in the Middle East; it installed local monarchies in several colonies and mandates including [[Iraq]], [[Jordan]], [[Kuwait]], [[Bahrain]], [[Oman]], [[Yemen]] and [[Libya]]. In subsequent decades revolutions and [[coup]]s overthrew a number of monarchs and installed republics. Several monarchies remain, and the Middle East is the only part of the world where several large states are ruled by monarchs with almost complete political control.<ref>Anderson, Lisa. "Absolutism and the Resilience of Monarchy in the Middle East." ''Political Science Quarterly'', Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 1–15</ref>