After a tense vote, citizens in the United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union, a move that caught many by surprise. The decision will have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences around the globe in areas of economics, migration and immigration, cultural expression and international politics. The EU is the end result of the European Economic Community (EEC) morphing into the European Commission (EC), which then morphed into the EU. While it was initially envisioned to create a single market throughout Europe, integrating the economies of member-states, this gradual shift reflects a growing awareness that economic integration alone is impossible, and that politics and cultural values are necessarily also involved.