Why doesn't my UK Plug work with a German, French, American, Indian or Chinese socket?

While speaking amongst friends and colleagues at a hardware lab today, we discovered that we were 5 at a table and amongst the number of devices we had took at least 7 different plug standards -- US, UK, France, Germany, Argentina, Israel & India! How did things get so crazy? Turns out this is all about competing power companies, copper shortages, colonialism and the like -- a massively enlightening discussion. Before we go onto wireless charging, there is still hope -- USB charging? Managed to find a Gizmodo article which hits the right spot on this conundrum -- makes a nice weekend read!