Modern Britain is the time since just after the end of the Second World War. At the beginning of this time Britain had just come out of a long world war, many of its cities were destroyed by bombs, and the country was nearly bankrupt. It had a large empire, but it had no ability to control it, and besides, many of the countries of the empire wished to be independent.

So there had to be a long period of rebuilding, and getting back on its feet. At the same time, many countries, such as the USA, which had not been as badly affected by the war, were able to forge ahead in terms of industry, faster than Britain.

Then there were countries that had begun to develop making things for themselves, and could do more cheaply than Britain. That included ships as well as small items like kitchenware and clothing.

The result of all of this was that Britain found itself in a time when it was losing its long-standing industries to countries who could make the same thing cheaper (even if it was because they paid their workers less), it was losing its empire, and it had very little money.

What happened over the next few decades was that Britain stopped being the world's greatest factory-based country. That was taken over by the USA (and since then China). It became instead a place where things were invented and developed because that was relatively cheap to do, and used the high skills and talent that the country had.

Britain had always been good at banking, and in modern Britain this was also strengthened so that banking and insurance (what we call financial services) were developed on a global scale.

Then Britain decided that most of its markets were in Europe and that it was in danger of being a small player without its empire. So it chose to turn its back partly on the old empire and make a trade agreement with countries in western Europe.

That group of trading countries became the EU, and today Britain once again finds itself a less important part of a large trading area. That trading area also has its problems as well as having many low paid workers who migrated to the UK to find better work. This has led to some people believing that the EU is no longer useful to Britain.

There has been non-stop change since the Second World War. One thing is certain, and that is there is sure to be more change in the years ahead.