Jun.23 (Dow Jones) -- It isn't just the English Channel that separates the U.K. from the rest of the European Union. Behind the island nation's decades-long ambivalence about the bloc lie centuries of political and historical differences.
The U.K. votes Thursday on whether to continue its 43-year membership of the bloc, the first such vote by a member of the modern EU. From the beginning, the country has been less enthusiastic than most of the EU's 27 other states.
Britain's history, aided by the surrounding seas, helped insulate it from some of the political and military turbulence that pushed countries from Germany to Poland to embrace the union. Its centuries of maritime power encouraged it to look far beyond Europe for trade and influence, driving the creation of an empire that spanned the globe.
That feeling of being apart from Europe suggests that even if the U.K. votes to remain in the EU, it won't end its awkward fit. The country will likely continue to struggle with the Continent.
"To a country which defines itself by its independent past...there has remained a national bipolarity over Europe that is unlikely to be put to rest" on referendum day, said James Ellison, an expert in international affairs at Queen Mary University of London.
British statesmen were among the earliest to talk of a union of European nations. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the Marquess of Salisbury and Victorian-era prime minister, talked of a "federation of Europe" as the only hope of averting regional war, while Winston Churchill called for a U.S. of Europe in the aftermath of World War II.
But the U.K. would only join what became the modern-day EU in 1973, almost a quarter of a century after the union began, entering at a time when its empire had faded and its economy trailed most international peers.
For many Britons, the rationale was about becoming part of a trading group, whereas for many of its European neighbors there was also a large motivation borne of security and political considerations.
"For France, Italy and Germany, the union meant peace after the war, for Spain and Portugal, democracy after fascism, for East Europeans security from Russia and prosperity," said Carles Casajuana, a former senior Spanish diplomat and ambassador to the U.K.
While an aggressive military power, the U.K. hasn't seen a pitched battle on its mainland since 1745 when England and Scotland last fought--and it has been far longer since the country endured a ground assault from abroad.
"We are an island with a long history," said Malcolm Rifkind, a former British foreign and defense secretary. "A lucky island, because we haven't been invaded since 1066," he said, referring to the Norman conquest by an army from what is now northern France.
Continental Europe, on the other hand, saw the destruction of the last century's two world wars at closer quarters. That trauma pushed countries like Germany, Italy and France to form the EU.
The U.K. suffered through those wars. It was shaken by air raids in World War I and World War II and the names of over 575,000 British and Commonwealth military personal are on graves and memorials from the wars in France alone.
But its victories in European clashes from Waterloo to WWII's Battle of Britain established a still potent national identity of the plucky islanders who stood tall against European dictators.
That imbued many Britons with a sense that the country's biggest problems came from continental Europe and its major allies, the U.S., Canada and other commonwealth nations, from further afield.
"In my lifetime, all the problems have come from mainland Europe, and all the solutions have come from the English-speaking nations across the world," former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said.
While other nations are increasingly restless with the EU, some observers say that Britain's former status as the world's military and economic superpower has given it an arrogance that made it harder for the country to see itself as a subset of Europe.
"There is a great power complex at work," said Mr. Ellison of Queen Mary University.
The U.K. also started on the path to democracy very early--with the Magna Carta first guaranteeing individual rights in 1215. That has helped inure if from some of the political upheaval that hit much of the continent, parts of which have been riven by revolutions and communist and fascist movements.
"The last big change in the political system was through the English Civil War in the 17th century," said Vernon Bogdanor, a professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History at King's College London. That war set the country on an early road toward parliamentary democracy.
As a result, there are key differences between the political systems that emerged in Europe and the U.K that means the British find integration less attractive.
Unlike most European nations the U.K. doesn't have a written constitution and, like the U.S., the U.K. uses a first-past-the-post voting system rather than the proportional representation practiced in many other parts of Europe. For many Britons, such differences are part of their national identity.
"The British have never been comfortable Europeans," Mr. Ellison said.
Copyright © 2016, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.Fecha de publicación: 23/06/2016