The British Empire from its heyday reached truly gigantic proportions. She became the greatest of all that mankind has known over the entire period of its existence.
British powerThe empire expanded its territorial possessions for more than two hundred years, until there was not a single continent on the planet wherever English-speaking countries were located. It is believed that the peak of its power came at the beginning of the 20th century - in fact, the period when the territories of the Third World were finally divided into colonies. And the English crown was able to profit from very tidbits of this cake.
English-speaking countries arose on the lands of relatively free continents like America and Australia. The technically backward states of Asia and Africa were also actively involved in the orbit of British influence. Moreover, long before the First World War, it was the British who showed an example of the forcible redistribution of colonial territories, entering the struggle for the “Spanish inheritance” in North America, over the territories in India - with the Dutch and rich in diamond deposits South Africa - with the Boers settled here, descendants of the Germans and the Dutch.
During its expansion, the
British Empire actively spread its own language, legal and administrative structures, and culture in the colonies. If at the end of the 18th century, even in our own country, the French were in fashion in the upper echelons of society, then throughout the 19th century the situation is changing - English is gradually becoming the dominant language throughout the world.
English-speaking countries as a legacy of an empire
The last stage of the decolonization process on our planet took place after the Second World War. At this time, France lost most of its colonies. Significant changes have occurred in the British world. Modern English-speaking countries, for the most part, were either once settled by immigrants from an island, such as Canada, Australia or New Zealand, or are former colonies. For example, English is one of the official and widely used languages in Nigeria, India, Jamaica and many other countries. However, the British Empire, like the French, has sunk into oblivion. The subjects subordinate to it, one by one, came out of the control of the British, gaining independence.
At the same time, English-speaking countries, the list of which is very wide today, for the most part wished to maintain warm relations and some connection with the former metropolis. So, the British
Commonwealth of Nations appeared in the second half of the XIX century. However, it received its final formal consolidation only in the middle of the 20th century. Today it includes 14 territories, not counting the island itself. Many of these states to this day consider the
Queen of England a symbol of their nation
. She is the symbolic head of Canada, Trinidad, New Zealand, Australia, Barbados and a number of other states. Equally significant is the imperial heritage for the rest of the world. English-speaking countries (an abstract, article, or even any note on a topic that confirms this to you) are dominant today, and the United States is at the head of their list (after the UK). The Anglo-Saxon system of law is common in many regions of the world. Institutional systems such as parliamentarism, civil society, and so on, are equally indebted to their prevalence for English (and generally European) dominance in the world. Not to mention language, as the main instrument of international communication today.