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With the entrance of Mozambique in 1995 and Rwanda in 2009, it broke a tradition that had held true for all member nations in the Commonwealth. Mozambique and Rwanda had no previous ties to England and they were not part of the British Empire when it was still around.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 59.</ref> Queen Elizabeth II premitted the entrance of Mozambique and Rwanda even though other member nations didn't like it. The entrance of countries without historical ties to Britain would dilute and weaken the Commonwealth since all others had shared historical ties to Britain.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 59.</ref><br>
 
With the entrance of Mozambique in 1995 and Rwanda in 2009, it broke a tradition that had held true for all member nations in the Commonwealth. Mozambique and Rwanda had no previous ties to England and they were not part of the British Empire when it was still around.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 59.</ref> Queen Elizabeth II premitted the entrance of Mozambique and Rwanda even though other member nations didn't like it. The entrance of countries without historical ties to Britain would dilute and weaken the Commonwealth since all others had shared historical ties to Britain.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 59.</ref><br>
 
Even though the Queen was no longer Head of the Empire, her new title was Head of the Commonwealth, which came with the responsibilities of maintaining the integrity of the Commonwealth. Many countries who had previously joined the Commonwealth before the official introduction of the Commonwealth held a good amount of power before the World War II.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 58.</ref> After the war, their power began to diminish as the monarch took increasing power over the Commonwealth as more countries applied to be in the Commonwealth. It should be noted, however, that the Commonwealth is not a political alliance like North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor like the European Union (EU), but more of a collection of nations. They don't share information with each other and provide aid to one another.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 60.</ref><br>
 
Even though the Queen was no longer Head of the Empire, her new title was Head of the Commonwealth, which came with the responsibilities of maintaining the integrity of the Commonwealth. Many countries who had previously joined the Commonwealth before the official introduction of the Commonwealth held a good amount of power before the World War II.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 58.</ref> After the war, their power began to diminish as the monarch took increasing power over the Commonwealth as more countries applied to be in the Commonwealth. It should be noted, however, that the Commonwealth is not a political alliance like North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor like the European Union (EU), but more of a collection of nations. They don't share information with each other and provide aid to one another.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 60.</ref><br>
The Queen attends meetings called the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings where all the heads of state from each member country attends meetings to discus the Commonwealth.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane.</ref> Since England is the main country n the Commonwealth, the Queen has the most power when it comes to these meetings. This was set up by her father, King George VI, when creating the Commonwealth. She does not take sides with anyone if an argument breaks out, but will rather try to fix the argument with common ground and political neutrality.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane.</ref><br>
+
The Queen attends meetings called the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings where all the heads of state from each member country attends meetings to discus the Commonwealth.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 60.</ref> Since England is the main country n the Commonwealth, the Queen has the most power when it comes to these meetings. This was set up by her father, King George VI, when creating the Commonwealth. She does not take sides with anyone if an argument breaks out, but will rather try to fix the argument with common ground and political neutrality.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 61.</ref><br>
When England entered negotiations with the EU about terms of entrance, it didn't sit well with other members of the Commonwealth. They were concerned over their trading goods with England and thought that their entrance into the EU would slow down trade with their longtime trading partners.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane.</ref> It wasn't expected however, that the Commonwealth would break up if and when England joined the EU, which they eventually did at the beginning of 1973.<ref>A. (2017, May 10). Countries. Retrieved June 16, 2017, from http://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries_en#tab-0-1</ref><br>
+
When England entered negotiations with the EU about terms of entrance, it didn't sit well with other members of the Commonwealth. They were concerned over their trading goods with England and thought that their entrance into the EU would slow down trade with their longtime trading partners.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 62.</ref> It wasn't expected however, that the Commonwealth would break up if and when England joined the EU, which they eventually did at the beginning of 1973.<ref>A. (2017, May 10). Countries. Retrieved June 16, 2017, from http://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries_en#tab-0-1</ref><br>
However, trade issues would eventually arise between England, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia when a wave of republicanism over swept each country during the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane.</ref> Canada and Australia were aligning themselves to be more like the United States than England, and that hurt the trading between the different countries.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane.</ref> New Zealand wasn't enabled to make a move like Canada and Australia because they weren't strong or a big enough country to make a powerful move against England. They remained loyal to the Crown and England. <br>
+
However, trade issues would eventually arise between England, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia when a wave of republicanism over swept each country during the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 62.</ref> Canada and Australia were aligning themselves to be more like the United States than England, and that hurt the trading between the different countries.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 63.</ref> New Zealand wasn't enabled to make a move like Canada and Australia because they weren't strong or a big enough country to make a powerful move against England. They remained loyal to the Crown and England. <br>
The Commonwealth would be tested greatly in 1987 with the issue over South Africa and Nelson Mandela.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane.</ref>Many riots were taking place all over South Africa between the different races that had settled there. The whites believed their were superior over the black residents and felts that no blacks should be allowed to hold public office. Margaret Thatcher, the sitting Prime Minister at the time and hardline conservative, siding with the white population while holding a white's only election.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane.</ref> However, Margaret Thatcher was misinterpreted by the media. She wanted the release of Nelson Mandela from prison but would not publicly come out and say that.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane.</ref> Many nations in the Commonwealth were taken aback by this statement from Thatcher, but she didn't back down from her claims.<br>
+
The Commonwealth would be tested greatly in 1987 with the issue over South Africa and Nelson Mandela.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane,
 +
page 64.</ref>Many riots were taking place all over South Africa between the different races that had settled there. The whites believed their were superior over the black residents and felts that no blacks should be allowed to hold public office. Margaret Thatcher, the sitting Prime Minister at the time and hardline conservative, siding with the white population while holding a white's only election.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 65.</ref> However, Margaret Thatcher was misinterpreted by the media. She wanted the release of Nelson Mandela from prison but would not publicly come out and say that.<ref>Hurd, D. (2015). Elizabeth II: the steadfast. London: Allen Lane, page 65.</ref> Many nations in the Commonwealth were taken aback by this statement from Thatcher, but she didn't back down from her claims.<br>
 
This left Queen Elizabeth II in doubt over whether Thatcher could continue the job as Prime Minister without scurrility from other heads of state within the Commonwealth. The Queen would continue to battle with Thatcher privately until she was replaced by Sir John Major as Prime Minister in 1990.<ref>Past Prime Ministers. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2017, from https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers</ref><br>
 
This left Queen Elizabeth II in doubt over whether Thatcher could continue the job as Prime Minister without scurrility from other heads of state within the Commonwealth. The Queen would continue to battle with Thatcher privately until she was replaced by Sir John Major as Prime Minister in 1990.<ref>Past Prime Ministers. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2017, from https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers</ref><br>
 
Overall, the Commonwealth has stayed whole during Queen Elizabeth's reign. It has not fallen apart, but rather grown and adapted to today's nature. The Queen has done a marvelous job at keeping the Commonwealth whole. She hasn't had the ability to look back at predecessors to see what they're actions were in a time of need because she was the first to inherit the title Head of the Commonwealth.<br>
 
Overall, the Commonwealth has stayed whole during Queen Elizabeth's reign. It has not fallen apart, but rather grown and adapted to today's nature. The Queen has done a marvelous job at keeping the Commonwealth whole. She hasn't had the ability to look back at predecessors to see what they're actions were in a time of need because she was the first to inherit the title Head of the Commonwealth.<br>

Revision as of 14:35, 19 June 2017

The Identity of The United Kingdom under the Ruling of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth

by Dakota Payette

The Identity of The United Kingdom under the Ruling of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
Milestone Image
King George VI and Family [1]

Abstract

My experience for this milestone is to hopefully dive into pre and post World War II Great Britain and see how King George VI change the role of the monarchy and its transition from an Empire to a Commonwealth. I want to see the changes that he made and how those changes impacted Queen Elizabeth II and her early ruling as Queen of the Commonwealth. I previous took a British Empire class at WPI that dived into Great Britain between the American Revolution and Brexit. One memorable piece of the class was writing an essay on The King's Speech, which was about King George VI overcoming his stammer issue. It really got me thinking about how King George VI ruled during his time as king and what changes he made to the monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II was the first and so far only monarch to rule under the changes made by King Charles VI. I want to look at how those changes affected the ruling style between King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.


Introduction

This project is about exploring the lives of England's past two monarchs, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, and seeing how they ruled England though tough times. King George VI had to lead his country and Empire through the abdication crisis when he first took the throne while Queen Elizabeth II had to maintain a stable Commonwealth despite outside issues trying to undermine the very heart of the Commonwealth. Others have created essays and biographies that explored the lives of these two monarchs, but never together. That was my goal for this project. Mine is different because it covers both and not just one of the monarchs. For completing this project, I had to look at how to create timelines. I've tried in the past and failed using many different techniques at creating one. The last time I had to create a timeline was for a senior scrapbook project in high school and it came out awful. I didn't want to repeat that mistake, so I took my time and looked into the best way for creating a timeline. I found this amazing website that uses Google Spreadsheet and creates a timeline from that. I would highly recommend using that website for any future timeline projects.


Section 1: The Life and Reign of King George VI

The Life and Reign of King George VI
Milestone Image
Location King George VI and his wife Elizabeth's grave at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle
Photo taken by Dakota Payette

King George VI did not expect to take to the throne so quickly. He was the second son of King George V, the reigning monarch of England during World War I. George VI fell into the same pattern as his father since both were the younger sibling and were not expected to take the throne. This project will dive into the life of King George VI and look at how he rose to power in England. Once he became King, he had to deal with Nazi Germany and their aggression in Europe and later on World War II. He would face the unprecedented challenge of changing the role of the monarchy as Britain changed from an Empire to a Commonwealth.


Life Before King of England

King George VI was born in 1895 as the second son of King George V, but he was known as Albert until he accessed to the throne. His older brother, who would later become King Edward VII, was the heir apparent as they were growing up. Albert lived in the shadows of his older brother for their entire childhood. Most of the spotlight was on Edward since he was directly next in line for the throne, and their father was already getting old.
It was hard for Albert growing up however, since he was dealing with many different illnesses that hindered his public appearance. Even though he had these illnesses, he still battled against them and tried to display his courage. While he was serving as a naval cadet in Osborne, he came down with a server attack of pneumonia. [2] The illnesses almost made him stop serving as a cadet, but he was able to continue on once he beat the illness. During the early months of World War I, he had to take a leave of absence from duty to get treated for appendicitis. [3] Even still after the appendicitis incident, he wanted to continue on serving in the war. Many other members of the royal family were helping serve for the war efforts and he wanted to help. However, in 1917, injuries and surgery would strike again for him. He was treated for a duodenal ucler, but this would operation would be the last for him. [4]
Once the war was over, Albert realized the importance of staying fit and healthy and keeping in touch with the doctors and nurses who treated him. Keeping involved with medicine was a thing that his father knew the importance of since he was older when he accessed to the throne. King George V knew that he had to stay healthy as long as he was king. With Albert, he was close with the British Empire Cancer Campaign. During his stent in the House of Lords, he led that campaign right up until he took the throne. [5] That would occur in December of 1936, but not in the way many people thought it would happen.
Being the second of two sons, Albert never really imagined he would become king. His older brother would inherit the throne before him and become king. However, Edward insisted on marrying a previously divorced American women. Since the monarch is the head of both England and the Church of England, the monarch could not marry someone who was previously divorced. Edward picked his love over being king, which means he had to abdicate the throne, giving a clear path for Albert to become king. [6]
By the time Albert, now King George VI, took the throne, Edward's short legacy blasted a huge blow to the monarchy. Its public appearance had been damaged by Edward abdicating the throne and leaving it in the hands of a man with a sickly past. The monarchy was unstable as now three different kings had sat on the throne, and that hindered the appearance of the monarch in the eyes of the citizens in the Empire.[7]

Transformation of The United Kingdom and The Crown into a Commonwealth under King George VI

King George VI had a rough start his reign due to the fact that his older brother abdicated. It was not a good start for him at all. The other bad part about him coming into power was the impeded issue of Germany which was gaining great power under Adolf Hitler. Germany was a scary threat to the rest of the world, and war would eventually break out in 1939.[8] Britain wouldn't be harmed during the first year of the war, but that changed in 1940 with the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe would terrorize London and the surrounding areas between the beginning of September of 1940 until the end of November. [9]
The United Kingdom and the rest of the Allied Powers would prevail on May 8th, 1945, when Adolf Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered. [10] It was a celebratory day all over Europe. Victory in Europe marked a great change in England, however. After going through two world wars in a span of 30 years, the wars had taken a toll on all the empires in Europe. England's Empire was no stranger to this as they started to lose global power while the United States and Soviet Union rose. In response to this decline in power, England had to to change its position internally. [11]
England changed from an Empire to a Commonwealth for the better. In definition, the British change from an Empire to a Commonwealth of Nations was a long term effect of what happened during the American Revolution. [12] King George VI realized this after the World War II when India and South Africa started to rise in power. The British could no longer control other nations that were part of their Empire. If they did keep the Empire going, they ran the risk of repeating what happening in the American Revolution. He realized that instead of keeping the countries in their Empire separate from the outside world, it would hurt them in the long run as other countries started to develop. It would be better for them to have the ability to work alongside the United States with their new Commonwealth of Nations. [13]
The break up of the Empire and transition into a Commonwealth of Nations was the first time since the English Civil War in the 1650s where England was no longer an Empire. Oliver Cromwell tried to set up a provisional government with no monarch, but it wouldn't last after his death. Now that England was no longer an Empire, the monarch was no longer the King or Queen of the Empire. Instead, the head of state title was change to the Head of the Commonwealth. [14] Back in the British Empire, the Kind or Queen was the head of everything, but in the Commonwealth, they held little power. That power had been transferred to the Houses of Parliament and different new Cabinet positions while the King or Queen had become nothing more than a remembrance of the past.[15]
The Commonwealth, however, is not a political alliance of nations. Instead, it's a collection of nations formed out of the ashes of the old British Empire. Countries can leave the Commonwealth if they would like to. [16] It was more practical for Britain to transform into a Commonwealth because of the situation in India. India and Pakistan shared land borders with Communist Asia and were becoming more independent. It would be better for them in the long run to join the Commonwealth, so that is exactly what they did when the British Empire collapsed. [17]
A scenario for this was drawn up in 1917 when dominions of the Empire came together, and they stated that if the Empire should collapse, they would create a new constitution that "made it no longer constitutional for the King to act for the Dominions, or for the United Kingdom Parliament to legislate for them, without their advice and consent."[18] Even though they had agreed to this back in 1917, it didn't stick well with South Africa and Canada when the time came for the creation of the Commonwealth. They, along with Australia and New Zealand, didn't like the feeling of being tied to a written constitution for creating the foundation of the Commonwealth. [19] They would rather see the Commonwealth be a collection of nations that had the freedom to come and go as they please. King George VI acknowledged these terms with the countries who were once part of the Empire. Many nations had already decided to join up and form the first members of the Commonwealth even before the British Empire fell apart. Those nations are listed in the table below.

Countries who joined Commonwealth before 1953[20]
1931 Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and United Kingdom
1947 India, Pakistan
1948 Sri Lanka



England had formally transitioned from an Empire to a Commonwealth in 1949. King George VI would be the last British Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth. [21]The United Kingdom is at the head of the Commonwealth, and since 1949, many members have joined. In total, there are 52 member countries that are a part of the Commonwealth, and there are 18 countries from Africa, 13 from the Americas and Caribbean, 11 from the Pacific. seven from Asia, and three from Europe (including the United Kingdom).[22] The major countries that are a part of the Commonwealth include Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa. [23]


Section 2: The Life and Reign of Queen Elizabeth II


The Life and Reign of Queen Elizabeth II
Milestone Image
Queen Elizabeth II and Family at 90th Birthday[24]

Queen Elizabeth II is the longest reigning monarch in English history and around the world. She took the throne after her father, King George VI, passed away in 1952 after a long battle with illnesses. She was the first monarch to inherit the title Head of The Commonwealth from her father. Her reign as Queen of England and Head of the Commonwealth has been very fortunate for the whole of England.

Life Before Queen of England

Queen Elizabeth was born in 1926 as the first of two daughters by King George VI. Her sister, Margaret Rose,was born in 1930, but the spotlight was Elizabeth. The family wasn't involved in many royal duties since George was the younger of two brothers, but that all changed when his older brother, Edward VII, abdicated the throne in 1936. That put Elizabeth second in line for the throne, and that is when she realized that life was about to change for all of them. [25]
It was at her father's coronation that she realized just how important she had become. [26]Elizabeth and her sister were now firmly in the spotlight with their father being the King of England.
When it came to education, her and her sister were taught privately by a two tutors, one a French resident by the name of Vicomtesse de Bellaigue who taught the girls French. The other was Sir Henry Marten, who was the Vice Provost of Eton College. [27]Together, these two would help the sister with their education while staying away from the public view. This was decided upon by their mother, who thought it would be better for her daughters to be taught in private rather than be faced with going to public schooling.
With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the sisters lived with their parents in Buckingham Palace, riding out the Luftwaffe in 1940 in central London with everyone else. King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, wanted to stay in central London to keep public moral high during the troubling times. Towards the end of the war, Elizabeth joined Auxiliary Territorial Service, which was the women's division of the British Army. [28]She would stay in England however since her parents wouldn't allow her to travel into mainland Europe.
While the whole of Europe was celebrating victory over Germany, Elizabeth and her family were planning her wedding. Elizabeth had fallen in love with Prince Philip of Greece. [29] He had taken her and Margaret under his protection when he guided them through Royal Navy Academy in Dartmouth. He was her long distant cousin with their only relative being the late Queen Victoria. [30]He ended up proposing to her during the war, but was later told that the ceremony would have to wait until after the war was over. The Royal Family had planned a trip to South Africa during 1947, and Elizabeth and Philip needed to blessings from King George VI before the wedding could be announced to the public. [31]
Elizabeth and Philip, along with Margaret, began shouldering some of the responsibilities that were reserved for the King when his health started to decline in the later 1940s. Eventually, King George VI was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1951 and had to cancel state trips that were planned across the Commonwealth. [32] Being next in line for the throne, Elizabeth and Philip insisted the trip be reschedule so they could go on it. It was eventually rescheduled for the beginning of 1952. The first country that they had planned to visit was Kenya, but they had to cut their trip much shorter than planned. Only a few days into their trip, King George VI died in his sleep. [33] It was a solemn plane ride home from Kenya. Elizabeth was now Queen Elizabeth II, and she was greeted by Lord Woolton, Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, and Winston Churchill when her and Philip returned from Kenya. [34]Her reign as Queen of England and Head of the Commonwealth is a reign that no one expected.


Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and Head of the Commonwealth

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey on June 2nd, 1953, over a year after the death of her father, the late King George VI.[35] He reign would end up lasting a lot longer than most people would expect, going all the way from her cornination in 1953 until the present day.[36]
Her reign presided over an interesting time for England as the continued their transition from an Empire to a Commonwealth. The Commonwealth had started in 1947, but not many countries had joined the Commonwealth. Still were some connected to the British Empire and joined after the formation of the Commonwealth. The countries that joined after the formation of the Commonwealth during Queen Elizabeth II's reign are listed below in the table.

Countries who joined Commonwealth after 1953[37]
1960 Nigeria 1961 Cyprus, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania 1962 Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda
1963 Kenya 1964 Malawi, Malta, and Zambia 1965 Singapore
1966 Barbados, Botswana, Guyana, and Lesotho 1968 Mauritius, Nauru, and Swaziland 1970 Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga
1972 Bangladesh 1973 Bahamas 1974 Grenada
1975 Papua New Guinea 1976 Seychelles 1978 Dominica
1979 Kiribati, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1980 Vanuatu 1981 Antigua and Barbuda and Belize
1983 Saint Kitts and Nevis 1984 Brunei 1990 Namibia
1995 Cameroon and Mozambique 2009 Rwanda


With the entrance of Mozambique in 1995 and Rwanda in 2009, it broke a tradition that had held true for all member nations in the Commonwealth. Mozambique and Rwanda had no previous ties to England and they were not part of the British Empire when it was still around.[38] Queen Elizabeth II premitted the entrance of Mozambique and Rwanda even though other member nations didn't like it. The entrance of countries without historical ties to Britain would dilute and weaken the Commonwealth since all others had shared historical ties to Britain.[39]
Even though the Queen was no longer Head of the Empire, her new title was Head of the Commonwealth, which came with the responsibilities of maintaining the integrity of the Commonwealth. Many countries who had previously joined the Commonwealth before the official introduction of the Commonwealth held a good amount of power before the World War II.[40] After the war, their power began to diminish as the monarch took increasing power over the Commonwealth as more countries applied to be in the Commonwealth. It should be noted, however, that the Commonwealth is not a political alliance like North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor like the European Union (EU), but more of a collection of nations. They don't share information with each other and provide aid to one another.[41]
The Queen attends meetings called the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings where all the heads of state from each member country attends meetings to discus the Commonwealth.[42] Since England is the main country n the Commonwealth, the Queen has the most power when it comes to these meetings. This was set up by her father, King George VI, when creating the Commonwealth. She does not take sides with anyone if an argument breaks out, but will rather try to fix the argument with common ground and political neutrality.[43]
When England entered negotiations with the EU about terms of entrance, it didn't sit well with other members of the Commonwealth. They were concerned over their trading goods with England and thought that their entrance into the EU would slow down trade with their longtime trading partners.[44] It wasn't expected however, that the Commonwealth would break up if and when England joined the EU, which they eventually did at the beginning of 1973.[45]
However, trade issues would eventually arise between England, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia when a wave of republicanism over swept each country during the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign.[46] Canada and Australia were aligning themselves to be more like the United States than England, and that hurt the trading between the different countries.[47] New Zealand wasn't enabled to make a move like Canada and Australia because they weren't strong or a big enough country to make a powerful move against England. They remained loyal to the Crown and England.
The Commonwealth would be tested greatly in 1987 with the issue over South Africa and Nelson Mandela.[48]Many riots were taking place all over South Africa between the different races that had settled there. The whites believed their were superior over the black residents and felts that no blacks should be allowed to hold public office. Margaret Thatcher, the sitting Prime Minister at the time and hardline conservative, siding with the white population while holding a white's only election.[49] However, Margaret Thatcher was misinterpreted by the media. She wanted the release of Nelson Mandela from prison but would not publicly come out and say that.[50] Many nations in the Commonwealth were taken aback by this statement from Thatcher, but she didn't back down from her claims.
This left Queen Elizabeth II in doubt over whether Thatcher could continue the job as Prime Minister without scurrility from other heads of state within the Commonwealth. The Queen would continue to battle with Thatcher privately until she was replaced by Sir John Major as Prime Minister in 1990.[51]
Overall, the Commonwealth has stayed whole during Queen Elizabeth's reign. It has not fallen apart, but rather grown and adapted to today's nature. The Queen has done a marvelous job at keeping the Commonwealth whole. She hasn't had the ability to look back at predecessors to see what they're actions were in a time of need because she was the first to inherit the title Head of the Commonwealth.


Deliverable: Timeline of Important Events

For the deliverable part of this milestone, a timeline was created. This timeline goes into the lives of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, the previous and current monarch of England. These two monarchs presided over great change for England. When King George VI took the throne in 1936 after the abdication crisis with his brother, he oversaw great change with the dissolution of the British Empire and the creation of The Commonwealth of Nations. He was the last English monarch to use the title Emperor of India, but the first to use the title Head of The Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II was the first monarch to inherit the title Head of the Commonwealth.
Together, these two monarchs are important monarchs for England. They almost reigning for the entire part of the 20th century. Through this timeline, it dives into their lives and turbulent times that they endured through. My background goes through and describes their lives in detail while the timeline takes that information and transfers it onto interactive slides that people can learn from instead of reading a boring essay or biography about the monarchs. The background is the backbone for the information on the timeline, but it's much easier to look at the timeline for information than search through an essay.

Timeline of King George VI

Linked below is the timeline for King George VI.
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1IFddcqd1BXQttSc6tFE-p1Zt0AqcSumAB_9r-HTJHV0&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=950

Timeline of Queen Elizabeth II

Linked below is the timeline for Queen Elizabeth II.
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1TfXOud8_VtpclR-wr5FlsJd0s1KC7XcTEdftS3hUr0Q&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=950


Gallery



Conclusion

Upon completing this work and milestone, it has been very rewarding to work on this project. I'm very happy with how this project turned out and would love to do another timeline that goes into more monarchs and their reigns. It was interesting to learn more about King George VI and his decline in health since he was such an advocate for staying healthy. With Queen Elizabeth II, it's amazing to see how England has changed while she's been sitting on the throne. She's seen many Prime Ministers and Heads of State come and go and seen the world evolve around here. For potential further areas of inquiry, one might be able to either look deeper into the lives of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II or even introduce more influential monarchs over time into the timeline. That will create one super interactive timeline for people to look at and learn more about each monarch individual, how they came to the throne, and important events that happened during their reign as King or Queen of England


References

  1. I. (2014, May 17). Ilovetheroyals1. Retrieved June 19, 2017, from http://ilovetheroyals1.tumblr.com/post/86027981221/they-royal-family
  2. King George VI. (1952). The British Medical Journal, 1(4754), 366-367.
  3. King George VI. (1952). The British Medical Journal, 1(4754), 366-367.
  4. King George VI. (1952). The British Medical Journal, 1(4754), 366-367.
  5. King George VI. (1952). The British Medical Journal, 1(4754), 366-367.
  6. Cannadine, D. (1998). King George VI. In History in Our Time (pp. 59-67). New Haven; London: Yale University Press.
  7. Cannadine, D. (1998). King George VI. In History in Our Time (pp. 59-67). New Haven; London: Yale University Press.
  8. Okeeffe, S. (2017, March 19). The 1940s: The Queen Mother’s finest decade.
  9. Okeeffe, S. (2017, March 19). The 1940s: The Queen Mother’s finest decade.
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