what countries did queen elizabeth ii rule?
United Kingdom
entailment
 By the start of the 20th century , Germany and the United States challenged Britain 's economic lead . Subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War , during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire . The conflict placed enormous strain on the military , financial and manpower resources of Britain . Although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I , Britain was no longer the world 's pre @-@ eminent industrial or military power . In the Second World War , Britain 's colonies in South @-@ East Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan . Despite the final victory of Britain and its allies , the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire . India , Britain 's most valuable and populous possession , achieved independence as part of a larger decolonisation movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire . The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire . Fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty . After independence , many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations , a free association of independent states . The United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations , a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms , that share one monarch — Queen Elizabeth II . 

entailment
 The 1960s and 1970s saw an acceleration in the decolonisation of Africa and the Caribbean . Over 20 countries gained independence from Britain as part of a planned transition to self @-@ government . In 1965 , however , the Rhodesian Prime Minister , Ian Smith , in opposition to moves toward majority rule , declared unilateral independence from Britain while still expressing " loyalty and devotion " to Elizabeth . Although the Queen dismissed him in a formal declaration , and the international community applied sanctions against Rhodesia , his regime survived for over a decade . As Britain 's ties to its former empire weakened , the British government sought entry to the European Community , a goal it achieved in 1973 . 

entailment
 The British Empire had been in transition since the 1920s , and the pace accelerated in the wake of the Second World War . More and more member states demanded independence , and a series of crises erupted during the 1950s , including the 1952 Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya and the Suez Crisis of 1956 . During the same period immigration into Britain from the Indian subcontinent and the Caribbean was on the increase , causing some resentment among elements of the native population . At the time Kneale was working on his scripts black communities in Nottingham and London came under attack from mobs of white Britons ; Kneale became keen to develop the serial as an allegory for the emerging racial tensions that culminated in the Notting Hill race riots of August and September 1958 . 

entailment
 From Elizabeth 's birth onwards , the British Empire continued its transformation into the Commonwealth of Nations . By the time of her accession in 1952 , her role as head of multiple independent states was already established . In 1953 , the Queen and her husband embarked on a seven @-@ month round @-@ the @-@ world tour , visiting 13 countries and covering more than 40 @,@ 000 miles by land , sea and air . She became the first reigning monarch of Australia and New Zealand to visit those nations . During the tour , crowds were immense ; three @-@ quarters of the population of Australia were estimated to have seen her . Throughout her reign , the Queen has made hundreds of state visits to other countries and tours of the Commonwealth ; she is the most widely travelled head of state . 

neutral
 Ultimately , they concluded that the United Kingdom was a distinct sovereign power and a distinct legal personality from Australia , and as such was a " foreign power " for the purposes of section 44 of the Australian Constitution . 
