The United Kingdom leaves the European Union on Friday with a mixture of joy, anger and indifference, casting off into the unknown after nearly five decades and dealing a blow to Europe's attempt to forge unity from the ruins of World War Two.
The EU's most powerful leaders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, cast Brexit - due at 2300 GMT - as a sad moment that was a turning point for Europe. The EU warned that leaving would be worse than staying.
In the United Kingdom's biggest geopolitical upheaval since its post-war loss of empire, it turns its back on 47 years of membership and must begin charting its own course for generations to come.
At the stroke of midnight in Brussels, the EU will lose 15% of its economy, its biggest military spender and the world's international financial capital - London.
Several thousand Brexit supporters gathered in a park outside the British parliament, many waving British and English flags in the rain as they watched a eurosceptic video history of the United Kingdom's turbulent relationship with the bloc.