Robert Aldrich is Professor of European History at the University of SydneyCindy McCreery is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Sydney

• 1 Monarchies, decolonisation and post-colonial Asia – Robert Aldrich and Cindy McCreery2 All the king’s men: regal ministers of eclipsed empires – Priya Naik3 Decolonised rulers: rajas, maharajas and others in post-colonial times – Jim Masselos4 The Himalayan kingdoms, British colonialism and indigenous monarchs after the end of empire – Robert Aldrich 5 Conflict and betrayal: negotiations at the end of British rule in the Shan States of Burma (Myanmar) – Susan Conway6 Malaysia’s multi-monarchy: surviving colonisation and decolonisation – Anthony Milner7 Celebrating the 'world’s most ideal state': Sarawak and the Brook dynasty’s centenary of 1941 – Donna Brunero8 Refashioning the monarchy in Brunei: Sultan Omar Ali and the quest for royal absolutism – Naimah S. Talib9 Colonial monarchy and decolonisation in the French Empire: Bao Dai, Norodom Sihanouk and Mohammed V – Christopher Goscha10 Loyalism and anti-communism in the making of the modern monarchy in post-colonial Laos – Ryan Wolfson-Ford11 Indonesia: sultans and the state – Jean Gelman Taylor12 Defending the sultanate’s territory: Yogyakarta during the Indonesian decolonisation, 1942–50 – Bayu Dardias Kurniadi13 The uses of monarchy in late-colonial Hong Kong, 1967–97 – Mark Hampton14 From absolute monarch to ‘symbol emperor’: decolonisation and the Japanese emperor after 1945 – Elise K. Tipton15 Dramatising Siamese independence: Thai post-colonial perspectives on kingship – Irene StengsIndex

‘…the range of accounts offered here complicate the picture of decolonisation, demonstrating that, far from being sidelined by transitions to national independence, monarchies were consistently pivotal.’ Professor Martin C. Thomas, University of Exeter'In Monarchies and Decolonisation in Asia, the editors have done a sterling job in compiling a stimulating collection of studies that shine a much-needed light on a continent whose history is dominated by imperialism and monarchy, yet monarchy during the end of empire is often neglected in history texts. 'Royal Studies Journal