The decision when it came was a shock. Surprisingly, to people all over the world, not just to the British and Europeans directly affected. Reactions, depending upon where you stood, ranged from anger to jubilation, sadness to fear, incomprehension to indifference. Whatever the reaction the prevailing feeling was one of ill-defined unease. A sense that the world had changed and not for the better. Something far beyond the affairs of a tiny island set off a small littoral at the extreme Western end of Eurasian landmass was in the offing.