Quick Take: Why Britain Voted to Leave the EU

Countries band together to promote trade, defend human rights, protect the environment and repel threats. They sign treaties and join international groups, and each time they do, they agree to give up a bit of independence. That happened in a big way with the creation of the European Union, a free-trade zone and global political force forged from the fractious states of Europe. The question always was, could this extraordinary experiment hold together? Faced with the choice in a June 23 in-or-out referendum, the U.K. voted to leave the bloc it joined in 1973. The way many Brits saw it, the trade-offs no longer serve their interests; they prefer the idea of living outside the EU, as Norway and Switzerland do. They brushed aside the uncertainty that a breakup would cause and voted for what's become known as Brexit.
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