On May 6, the full pomp of the British monarchy will unfold for the coronation of Charles III at Westminster Abbey. It will then become the fortieth ruler to receive the anointing in this church since 1066. Through these royal traditions, the United Kingdom notably celebrates its past.
The ambient pragmatism makes the country foreign to the historical quarrels which regularly ignite France. However, since the Brexit referendum in 2016, things have changed, particularly in England, where the exit from the European Union was played out. His vote “leave” tipped the scales, because it weighs much more demographically than the other nations of the United Kingdom (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). Brexiters dreamed of seeing the country regain its exceptional status, leaving a community of equals within the European Union. Since then, England has been grappling with a tenacious controversy over the British Empire on which, decidedly, the sun does not set: an endless day falls on this past which does not pass.
By its scale, the colonial enterprise profoundly marked the country. Its history begins in the 17the century and spans four hundred years. At its height, in the 1920s, it formed the largest empire in history. After the Second World War, it slowly crumbled, but not without resistance. Winston Churchill, hero of the victory against Nazism, presided as Prime Minister over the harsh repression of the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya (1952-1956): 11,000 rebels were then killed. The focus today is on slavery. Nearly 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped to serve as slaves in America, a quarter of them made the crossing on British ships, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (more than 1, 3 million captives were embarked on ships under the French flag). However, the Empire (gradually) abolished slavery in 1833, fifteen years before France.
More than anyone else, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has put the “imperial novel” back into circulation: past power would attest to the high destiny to which the country would be called. In 2020, while he was still at 10 Downing Street, Boris Johnson said that it was necessary to put an end to “our embarrassing embarrassment about our history”. He then went to the defense of the imperial anthem Rule, Britannia! which continues to be sung at the end of the Proms, a series of London concerts, one of the most important cultural events of the summer in the British capital. This song dating from the XVIIIe century presents the British as a people chosen from among the nations who will not allow themselves to be reduced to slavery and who, therefore, have the task of conquering the world thanks to their mastery of the sea.
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