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Queen Elizabeth Will No Longer Serve as Barbados's Head of State

Queen Elizabeth Will No Longer Serve as Barbados's Head of State

Queen Elizabeth Will No Longer Serve as Barbados's Head of State

"The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind.”

Queen Elizabeth II just endured a professional rite of passage we doubt she’s had much experience with: getting fired. The monarch will no longer serve as Barbados’s head of state as the country moves to become a republic by November 2021, which marks the 55th anniversary of their independence from the British empire.

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"The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind,” Barbados’s Governor-General said on Tuesday, reading from a speech written by Prime Minister Mia Mottley. “Barbadians want a Barbadian Head of State. This is the ultimate statement of confidence in who we are and what we are capable of achieving.”

In addition to the U.K., the Queen serves as head of state to 15 countries that were once under British colonial control, including Australia, Belize, Canada, New Zealand, and Jamaica.

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Fellow Caribbean countries and former British colonies Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Dominica all became republics in the ‘70s. The last country to remove the monarch as their head of state was Mauritius in 1992.