British Empire
World War I weakened the Empire, and World War II accelerated this decline. Also, the ideas of mechanization and manufacture were becoming well known. Other countries could do this, too. Labour costs in (for example) China were much lower than they were in Britain. It is possible that without WWII Britain would still have been in control of manufacturing in large parts of the world. But WWII did happen, and ome consequence was the dominance of the United States, and China.