The death of Louis XVI was not the end of monarchy in France. The century after the revolution was marked by political turmoil, as a succession of monarchies (as well as rival dynastic factions) and republics vied for control.

In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of the French, but his rule would only last a decade. A coalition of European powers formed to impede his expansionist designs, initially exiling Napoleon to the tiny Mediterranean island of Elba in 1814, and placed Louis XVIII (brother of the executed king) on the throne.

This Bourbon Restoration – briefly interrupted by Napoleon’s return in 1815, before his decisive defeat at the battle of Waterloo – was toppled in July 1830 and replaced by the so-called ‘Citizen King’, Louis-Philippe.

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In turn, this ‘July monarchy’ was then swept away by the tide of revolutions that consumed Europe in 1848, with a second French republic being proclaimed. Still, elections returned a majority for monarchist deputies in the National Assembly, as well as the appointment of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of the former emperor) as president. Knowing that the constitution prevented his re-election, Louis-Napoleon seized dictatorial powers via a coup in 1851 and used a referendum the following year to legitimise his own transition to emperor.

Taking the regnal name Napoleon III, his autocratic rule was characterised by nostalgia for his illustrious uncle, economic prosperity and military triumphs during the Crimean War and elsewhere. However, Prussia’s growing power threatened France’s dominance in Europe. Hostilities broke out in 1870 and, after a humiliating defeat at the battle of Sedan, during which the emperor was taken prisoner, a third French republic was proclaimed.

Napoleon III went into exile in Britain and died three years later, an inglorious end to France’s last monarch.

Hawaii, 1893

Ever since Captain James Cook’s arrival on Kauai Island in 1778, Hawaii had contended with encroachment from outside influences. Ambitious indigenous leaders such as Kamehameha I, also known as Kamehameha the Great, utilised European technology and weaponry to unite the islands under his personal rule, which helped maintain Hawaii’s independence going into the 19th century.

However, the 1800s saw a constant stream of European and American explorers, merchants, and missionaries settle across the remote archipelago in the Pacific; and eventually this powerful minority began to exert itself over the Hawaiian monarchy. By 1848, they had persuaded King Kamehameha III to invoke the Great Māhele, a division and redistribution of the land – with a significant proportion going to settlers.

The encroachment only intensified. The US curried favour with the kingdom to establish an exclusive free trade agreement in 1875; and little more than a decade later, in 1887, the countries agreed that the US would be permitted to establish a naval base at what would become Pearl Harbor.

That same year, a group of wealthy Europeans and Americans within the Hawaiian government succeeded in forcing the reigning king, Kalakaua, to agree to a new constitution. This ‘Bayonet Constitution’ stripped the crown’s powers and enshrined voting rights for the non-native population.

When Queen Liliʻuokalani came to the throne in 1891 and attempted to abrogate the constitution, a retaliatory Committee of Safety formed, which – with the assistance of US marines on the USS Boston – seized control of Hawaii. The monarchy was ultimately overthrown in 1893.

China, 1911

Over the course of the 19th century, China suffered a series of major defeats at the hands of foreign colonial empires, drastically undermining its status as a great power and weakening its millennia-old absolute monarchy.

In 1898, the Guangxu emperor unveiled the Hundred Days’ Reform to modernise many of the empire’s arcane traditions. It even proposed a transition to a constitutional monarchy. Instead, a palace coup orchestrated by conservatives around the dowager empress, Cixi, put a stop to any reform.

A year later, the Boxer Rebellion broke out – targeting foreigners and Christian groups in northern China – which provoked a multinational invasion, the capture of Beijing, and the temporary relocation of the imperial court. By 1908, Cixi was dead, and a two-year-old boy, Puyi, acceded to the throne. Just three years later, mass protests against the government escalated into an insurrection.

That October, soldiers in Wuchang mutinied, inspiring other cities to denounce the ruling Qing dynasty, and by the end of the year the monarchy faced a full-blown revolution. Sun Yat-sen took control of a provisional government and, on 12 February 1912, the boy emperor was forced to abdicate. China became a republic, ending more than 2,000 years of imperial rule.

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Russia, 1917

Just three years after celebrations that marked the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, the Russian monarchy was plunged into a crisis that it could not overcome. The First World War had inflicted a heavy blow to the empire’s creaking infrastructure, especially as the Hessian-born tsarina, Alexandra, was a much-hated target of anti-German sentiment.

Chief among tsar Nicholas II and his wife’s woes, however, was the wellbeing of their son, Alexei, who suffered from haemophilia. In their desperation, they became dependant on the mystic Rasputin, who seemed able to stem the boy’s bleeds. Rasputin was loathed by the imperial court, especially as Alexandra was devoted to him. When Nicholas took personal command of Russia’s armies in 1915 and left administration of the empire in his wife’s hands, rumours circulated that Rasputin was really the one pulling the strings.

In December 1916, a group of aristocrats murdered him. However, this failed to prevent the Romanovs’ downfall. Early the following year, hundreds of thousands of workers, angered by food shortages, went on strike in the capital of Petrograd (present-day St Petersburg). When elite regiments of the Imperial Guard mutinied, the febrile situation turned into a revolution.

With all authority lost, Nicholas abdicated on 15 March 1917, going into house arrest along with his family. The Russian monarchy came to an end when his brother, Grand Duke Michael, refused the throne. Following the subsequent October Revolution, Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were murdered by a Bolshevik firing squad in the summer of 1918.

Spain, 1931

After 33 governments in just 21 years, Spain was at a constitutional dead-end by 1923. Finally, with the support of King Alfonso XIII, General Miguel Primo de Rivera seized power via a coup. Many Spaniards, fatigued after so many years of uncertainty, welcomed this definitive intervention, but he soon initiated a dictatorial regime that lasted for the rest of the decade.

When Primo de Rivera lost support amidst economic meltdown, he was forced to resign in 1930. Efforts to restore constitutional order failed, leading to local elections being held across Spain. Since Alfonso’s endorsement of the fallen dictator had damaged his reputation, these elections became a tacit referendum on the monarchy itself. The results were damning, with the overwhelming majority of provincial capitals going to republicans.

Without a shot being fired, the king and the royal family went into exile on 14 April 1931. Although Alfonso had not formally abdicated, spontaneous celebrations ushered in Spain’s new republic nonetheless. To convinced monarchists, this situation had to be reversed. A botched military uprising in 1936 plunged the country into a brutal civil war from which General Francisco Franco emerged as the new dictator.

His ultranationalist regime declared Spain to be a monarchy without a monarch. Portraiture of Franco, as well as the use of monarchical symbols and phrases that proclaimed he ruled “by the Grace of God”, gave his rule a regal tone. Upon his death in 1975, his handpicked successor, Juan Carlos (grandson of Alfonso), became king and transitioned the country back to a parliamentary democracy.

Greece, 1973

By the 1960s, the Greek people clamoured for social reforms. Georgios Papandreou, leader of the Centre Union Party, won a landslide electoral victory in 1964 with a mandate to modernise, but there were reactionary elements within the military elite who – since the end of the Greek Civil War in 1949 – considered themselves the guardians of the nation’s integrity. They eyed the new government’s agenda with suspicion.

In 1965, a scandal broke when a clandestine group of progressive-minded army officers known as ASPIDA was uncovered. The issue was that Papandreou’s son, Andreas, a prominent figure on the centre-left, was reputed to be a member. The young king Constantine II’s frosty relationship with his prime minister worsened as a result. This led to Papandreou’s resignation, and Constantine attempting to form multiple governments to little avail.

With fresh elections scheduled for May 1967 – which the Centre Union were projected to win with possible socialist support – Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos staged a coup, supported by a group of middle-ranking officers. In a move that irredeemably tarnished the monarchy for millions of Greeks, Constantine initially sanctioned the junta. His attempt at a counter-coup in December backfired, forcing the royal family to flee to Rome.

A military dictatorship, known as the Regime of the Colonels, ruled Greece until 1974. It suspended civil liberties, curbed freedom of the press, and presided over torture. And when an abortive coup by naval officers in 1973 was blamed on Constantine, the junta abolished the monarchy. Following the regime’s collapse, a referendum held by the new democratic republic confirmed that nearly 69 per cent of the population favoured the monarchy’s demise.

Ethiopia, 1974

Allowing for a five-year period of exile spent in Britain – after Fascist Italy’s conquest in 1936 – Haile Selassie I enjoyed a long reign as Emperor of Ethiopia, from 1930 to 1974. As a member of the Solomonic dynasty, he claimed to be descended from the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Under his rule, Ethiopia opened up to the global community and economy, joining the United Nations, with Selassie even serving as the first chairman of the Organisation of African Unity. Within his realm, he retained absolute authority over the government, and began to cultivate a parliamentary system and a statute on human rights.

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Nevertheless, the 1960s saw several problems converge into an existential crisis for the emperor. Eritrea’s bid for independence deteriorated into war, while famine, urban unrest and worsening social issues (such as unemployment and rising prices) led to Selassie being seen as an obstacle to modernisation.

In 1974, a group of Soviet-backed military officers called the Derg, seized power and placed him under house arrest. Later that year, more than 60 imperial officials were executed. Soon, the monarchy had been abolished; and on 27 August 1975, Selassie died in mysterious circumstances.

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