Photography: 98for98 - The century in photographs: today 1911

1911, "Coronation Guest". A peeress, accompanied by a guardsman, leaves Westminster Abbey after the coronation of George V.

We arrive in the second decade of The Independent's 98 for 98 series of photographs from the Hulton Getty Picture Collection. The peeress's relaxed manner is typical of a time when royalty dressed in full pomp, but didn't conduct themselves pompously. At the coronation it was noted that King George drew his son close and they embraced; King George's father, when he died the year before, ensured that his dog, Caesar, led the funeral procession.

"The foundation of the government of a nation must be built on the rights of the people," said Dr Sun Yat-Sen, echoing world-wide concern when he became the first president of the Chinese Republic. The year had begun with constitutional crises: in Britain, the chancellor of the exchequer's proposal to raise taxes for old age pensions had initiated "the battle of the Constitution" between the government and the House of Lords, which in August accepted a Bill asserting the supremacy of the Commons. .

In May the Mexican dictator, Porfirio Diaz, fell from power after 45 years In America the voting system was changed to give more power to the ordinary voter; in September Russia's premier, Peter Stolypin, was shot at the Kiev opera. The end of the Manchu domination over China altered a 300-year state of rule. Sun Yat-sen said, "the administration must be entrusted to experts: not grand ministers and presidents, but chauffeurs, guards at the gate, cooks, physicians, carpenters and tailors."