NARRATOR: On June 23, 2016 the
UK voted
to leave the European Union.
The decision is known as
Brexit, a shorthand way
to refer to Britain's Exit.
The split between the UK and
the EU shocked the world,
but it was actually
a long time coming.
Why?
Well, it all goes back to the
1957 establishment of the EEC,
or European Economic Community.
In the aftermath
of World War II,
Europe sought an
economic and political
partnership to pool
their resources
and secure a lasting peace.
Six nations signed
up, West Germany,
Belgium, France,
the Netherlands,
Italy and Luxembourg.
The Brits were ambivalent
about the arrangement at first.
Once a mighty empire, the UK
wasn't used to collaborating
with the rest of Europe, but it
finally joined in 1973 as a way
to bolster its economy.
Public reaction was tepid.
The major ruling
parties at the time
were mostly in favor
of England's membership
within the EEC, but a vote
was put to the people anyway.
Should Britain leave or remain?
67% voted remain.
One of those remain
votes came from a rising
star in the Conservative
Party, the Iron Lady
herself, Margaret Thatcher.
It will be a splendid
and decisive yes
for Britain in Europe
for your generation
and the whole of the next one.
NARRATOR: But by the
time she had become
Prime Minister in 1979,
Thatcher had grown
critical of the arrangement.
She complained that the vast
amount of money the UK paid
into the EEC's coffers
yielded little benefit
compared to the return
of other countries.
She demanded a rebate
and got one in 1984.
Thatcher also believed
that England's independence
and prosperity suffered under
centralized European authority.
She had no interest in being
a part of a United States
of Europe.
The growing rift produced
two sides, the Europhiles,
who embraced
integration with Europe,
and the Eurosceptics, who
wanted an independent Britain.
In a now famous 1988
speech in Bruges, Belgium,
Thatcher made her
views on the EU clear.
Europe will be
stronger precisely
because it has France
as France, Spain
as Spain, Britain as Britain,
each with its own customs,
traditions and identity.
It would be folly
to try to fit them
into some sort of identikit
European personality.
NARRATOR: Her position
rankled the Europhiles
within her own party and
helped lead to her resignation
in 1990.
Throughout the '90s,
Thatcher's successors,
John Major and Tony Blair,
pushed to unify with Europe.
In 1993, the EEC's
members expanded the power
of their governing
bodies, folding
the various European communities
into the newly formed European
Union, and laid the groundwork
for a single currency,
the euro.
But tensions resurfaced
in the 2000s amidst
economic and political crisis.
First, the global economy
crashed in 2008 hitting
the euro especially hard.
Many workers in euro
depressed nations
fled to England for jobs.
At the same time, unrest
in the Middle East
led to an influx of asylum
seekers to European shores.
Native born Britons believed
these migrants took away
jobs and depressed wages,
and blamed the EU's economic
regulation and border policies.
Calls to exit the EU
reached a fever pitch
led by a right wing
nationalist party
called UKIP, the UK
Independence Party.
Enter Prime Minister
David Cameron.
In 2013, he gave a speech
on the state of the EU
that echoed
Thatcher's in Bruges,
vowing reform if his
Conservative Party won a
majority in the next election.
We will give the British
people a referendum
with a very simple
in or out choice,
to stay in the European
Union on these new terms
or to come out altogether.
It will be an in out referendum.
NARRATOR: The Conservatives
won the election.
And under pressure
from UKIP politicians,
Cameron held the second remain
or leave referendum in June
of 2016.
And this time, nearly
52% voted leave.
Cameron, who had pushed for the
referendum in hopes of a remain
result, resigned two
and a half weeks later
as Britain began the long
and complicated process
of separating from the EU.
