Regarding Europe, I'm really only nostalgic for periods before 1914, though in those countries that kept their monarchies, subsequent decades can be considered preferable to the present in some ways. But regarding parts of Asia and Africa, I'm quite fond of the moderate Muslim monarchies of the mid-20th-century (particularly those of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran) and the last Christian Empire of Ethiopia, which takes us into the 1970s. So how long it's been since things were sort of acceptable depends on what part of the world I'm thinking about. It would have been interesting to have been alive at the time of the Shah's 1971 Persepolis celebrations, if only to follow the coverage from afar--and then horrify leftists by defending the Shah throughout the 1970s. There are no really controversial monarchical regimes today I'm interested in defending.
The Western Hemisphere, it seems, has been largely a lost cause from a monarchist point of view for a long time, certainly since Brazil fell in 1889, Canada and the Caribbean excepted.
Of course, ideally monarchism should not be primarily about nostalgia: if more monarchies had endured into the present, if one could visit the official websites of the current Shah of Iran or Emperor of Ethiopia or King of Hungary or Tsar of Russia or King of France, there would be no need for us to be as fixated on the past. I want Monarchy to belong to the future as well, but sadly the world does not seem to be listening.
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One thing I've come to learn about being a monarchist is what it means that monarchs rule for life, and that might give hope.
For example, from my Catholic perspective (I trust you know much of this already):
After Austria-Hungary lost World War I and was dismantled, of course Blessed Charles I never abdicated his throne, and while he was prevented from retaking the throne of Hungary, nevertheless Hungary became a regency monarchy in 1920.
After Charles I died, his son Archduke Otto von Habsburg became the rightful Emperor, and it was he for whom the Church prayed when She prayed for the Emperor, a practice that didn't end until 1955. And briefly in the 1930's things came close to Archduke Otto coming to power to block Hitler's expansion.
While that never happened, and while Hungary went Communist in 1946, and while Archduke Otto renounced his claim to the Austrian throne in the end (though not the Hungarian throne), nevertheless Archduke Otto lived until as recently as 2011. The last man for whom the Church prayed when She prayed for the Emperor (a man born as a prince in Austria-Hungary before World War I began) died when Barack Obama was President of the United States.
Added to this, I believe in the Catholic prophecy about a Great Catholic Monarch, and while I don't know for sure until he comes to power, I highly suspect he will be the son of Luis Alfonso, Duke of Anjou. The Duke himself is too old already, and the older of his twin sons (Prince Louis, Duke of Burgundy) is next in line to be the head of the House of Bourbon and will be a young man at the time the Great Catholic Monarch is to come to power--first as King of France and then as Holy Roman Emperor.
And if my guess is correct, Prince Louis was born while Archduke Otto von Habsburg was alive, on May 28, 2010.
In short, if I'm right in my guess, then Archduke Otto von Habsburg is a direct connection between the pre-World War I world and the lifetime of the next King of France and Holy Roman Emperor, the prophesied Great Catholic Monarch.
And I believe that this age of the Church will end and the next will begin sometime in the 2030's--and whenever it does, the revolutionary republics will be gone, and the world will be ruled by twelve Catholic kings, each subordinate to the French-speaking Emperor, mirroring the Kingdom of Heaven.
So don't lose hope--I am convinced that monarchy will be in the future, although I concede that a radical overhaul of the current world order (enacted by God, not just by men) will be necessary first.
God bless!
Actually I'm curious as to how many deposed monarchs/royals there are who to this day have never renounced their thrones....
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