It is understood as a global language, one
that is spoken and understood worldwide. The expansion of
the British Empire is the main cause of expansion of English language, which
nowadays is considered a global language. It is also known that the British
Empire was the largest Empire in history; moreover, the multiple colonial
undertakings and the expansion caused by them, helped English settle as an
official language in the colonies and with time gained power all around the
world. Important events such as the World War I, World War II and the
Industrial Revolution are also essential in the growth that this language has.
As
we have found in our research, “British English has acted as the benchmark for
representing ‘standardized’ English”; nevertheless, approximately 60 countries
have English as an official language or at least spoken by the majority. Aside
from this, questions can surge like, how many countries have English as a
secondary language? How many countries were colonized by the British Empire? Are
those countries still colonized? How many people around the world speak
English? How many varieties of English are there? Throughout this article, we
will discuss the relationship between the British Empire and the impact it had
on the English language throughout the last 5 centuries.
16th Century
The
British Empire started growing because of the continuous fights for resources
and markets between England’s rival countries such as, Spain, France and
Holland. While queen Elizabeth I was ruling, England established commercial
companies in Turkey, Russia and east India.
During
the 16th century, when the English marines where perfectioning their skills,
they found it was way more useful to attack the Spanish than to go across the
Atlantic Ocean transporting colonists. Drake attacked some place in northern California
that he reclaimed and named Nova Albion (New England) and the next maps located
Nova Albion in northern Spain.
In
1583 Humphrey Gilbert parted to Terranova and declared a Britannic colony on August
5 in San Juan. In this case the exception is Walter Raleigh, who gives its
support to the idea of settling a colony on Roanoke, nowadays known as North
Carolina. The colonists abandoned the
area in 1585 because they were desperate to go back to England, but it’s just a
year later that they returned by orders of Drake. Another group of colonists
were brought to the island the year after, 1587. In that year something very
significant for the island happened, the first baby from English parents was
born in the United States of America. The baby was called Virginia, in honor of
Virgin Queen in England. Afterwards, this became the name given to the island
we now know as Virginia, USA. In 1590 an English ship arrived to the island and
discovered that there was nothing left of anyone who had been on the island.
The
second attempt to create colonies in America was in 1606 with the foundation of
two companies with that purpose. Meanwhile England was also considering a more
important role in European adventures in the east. At the end of this century
an initiative is taken, with the activities of the East India Company. This
initiative will lead to the longest Britain’s colonial enterprises.
17th Century
The 17th century was one of the most important
centuries for the globalization of the English language and it had one main
reason: The British Empire set their firsts colonies in North America. In 1607, in what nowadays is
Virginia, the Englishman settled their first English colony. This was the beginning
of almost 200 years of the English Empire settled in North America, they first
colonized the Native Americans convincing them that they could offer them a better
life, and then the Englishman took power of most of the land that right now we
know as the United States. After that, the culture started to settle
among the Native Americans, obligating them to join the English traditions in
order to have a better life and get along with the English colonies. It
is this the reason why the natives started to learn English and the English
power became bigger, to big that in order to talk to most of the people in
those regions of North America, you had to speak English. That is when the
English language began to have great importance, and as we know, today in the
United States the principal language is English.
Why is this so important for the English language? The
English language is the most important language around the world, and this
could be attributing to the United States and the United Kingdom primarily.
Most of all because of the power they had and have in almost every sector in
the world, like the economy, science, politics, sports, arts and so on. Changing the roles, if Spain could conquer
the part England conquered back then, the Native Americans would learn Spanish
instead of English, and in those zones Spanish would rule in the 17th
century. People in the United
States would speak Spanish rather than English and instead of having English as
a global language, Spanish would take its place. This is why the conquers made
by the Englishman in what now is the United States, had a huge impact on the
English language.
18th Century
The
British began colonizing mainly because of their need to trade, rather than the
need for military conquest. In the 1700s the British Empire was expanding, the great
empire that they had, started moving and established in parts of Africa, India,
Australia and New Zealand. As English people started migrating and living in
these countries, the majority of the population spoke English, making it the
dominant language.
India as we know, is one
of the richest countries regarding its culture due to the diversity of people
during the colony period. Before the British people arrived to India, Portuguese
and Britain shared territory with France and Deutschland in, and with no doubt
English culture was the one that influenced the most as we can see it is the language
that’s still present in that country. This country was also the biggest
treasure for the British people because of its richness in resources and also because
of the size of the population, which made it easier in trading. As time passed
by, the empire took advantage of the goods of this land and converted it into
their richest colony, causing great envy in other empires that also wanted to
conquer India.
With the intention of
making the empire bigger and increase their power, England celebrated in 1707
the union with Scotland, forming the single Kingdom of Great Britain that meant
more army and power in their favor. In those years, there
was no country that didn’t know about the power that the British Empire had, thanks
to it, they started spreading their culture and with it the language that
nowadays rules the world.
Not everything was easy
for Britain; they had a lot of friction with the French Empire for most of the century.
They were involved in the Seven Years War, which ended in the absolute victory
of Britain by winning more territories in America and Asia. About their
winnings in America, the thirteen colonies in North America started a
revolution against the British. They wanted to be and independent colony, so
with the French support, the thirteen colonies accomplished their independency
from Britain in 1778.
Britain with the lost of
the American colonies had to look for a new place to move all the slaves. John
Banks suggested Australia, so they went there and established their colonies to
continue what they had in North America. They introduced their culture to the
natives and they started to adopt the English language, the reason why now they
talk English.
In New Zealand, the
British started settling because of a treaty between both colonies. Since they didn’t
want other empires in that area, they colonized New Zealand. After this treaty
was signed, provinces of British people emerged and with time locals adopted
their language, also influenced by the trading and commerce happening in the
area.
The African situation is
a different story, the British were able to capture millions of Africans and
export them around the world in order to sell them as slaves in other countries,
the situation forced them to learn the language of their conquerors and with
all the slavery exchanges, English started spreading.
All
the colonial undertakings in the 18th century caused Great Britain to
be the world's dominant colonial power and besides their power, their culture
was spread all over the world and everyone wanted and saw the need to talk
their language. At the end of the 18th century, the life in
Britain started to change as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution. Towns,
industries and trades started to grow.
19th Century
The 19th Century
was a period of changes in all aspects, but the most important event was the
Industrial Revolution, due to the impact it had on the English language. The industrial revolution
was the transition to a new ways of making products in every area of the
industry.
Before the industrial
revolution, manufacturing, for example, was always done in people’s homes with
basic tools, but when the industrial revolution started it changed the
production. With all the new inventions, like the machines, work became easier.
Britain was a stable
society, as well as the world’s leading colonial power, which meant its
colonies could serve as a source for materials, as well as a marketplace for
manufactured goods. As demand for British goods increased, merchants needed
more cost-effective methods of production, which led to the starts of factories and with the new
technologies made it possible to work with mass production.
The
Industrial Revolution also saw the rise of banks and industrial financiers,
with the influence of philosophers like Adam Smith, who was the father of the
modern economics, and after his book publications he encouraged people to learn
English in order to understand his ideas and theories. This revolution wasn’t only about
products, the transportation and communication industry also had a big
development with the emerge of the steamboat, railways and motorcar. Communication became easier thanks to
the telegraph invention. In the 19th century with all these
inventions, the standard of living raised for many people, however, the poor
and working classes continue with challenges.
The industrial
inventions soon started to spread all around the world and the other countries
began to industrialize also, stealing the spotlight from Great Britain, even
though they were still powerful.
The industrial
revolution marked a big change in people’s lives and thanks to all the
inventions, we have all the things we use today. English language had an
important part in this movement because the instructions of the machines or the
economic methods were created for people that their mother tongue was English,
so in order to understand and begin to apply this in other countries, they
needed to learn English.
20th century
The 20th
century was famous for the big wars it came with, especially World War I and
World War II, the British Empire participated in both of them. In the first war, England
declared war to Germany in 1914, just after Germany invaded Belgium, being the
first big step to the beginning of the war. In 1915, England suffered tons of
bomb attacks by Germany and the people began to wonder if they could get rid of
the war without losing almost everything they had. In 1917 the help came to
rescue them when the United States joined England forming the Allies, leaving
France and Russia as enemies. In 1918, the war ended when the Allies won,
making Germany sign to end the war.
In the following years,
Britain had the biggest territory an empire had ever had. Englishman dominated a
great of the world, occupying places like: South Africa, India, Pacific’s
Islands, Caribbean’s Islands, parts of America and parts of Northern Africa.
Great Britain gained a lot
of power after World War I and few countries did not like this. After some
trouble with other countries, Germany invaded France and marked the beginning
of World War II. Britain did not wait long to join the fight. Germany attacked England with a lot of
force but British people did not surrounded and in 1945, with the big help of
the United States and Russia, Germany surrounded and lost the war. Britain gained a lot of troubles
with World War II and they had to start from the bottom; nevertheless, they
still had colonies in other countries (the most important in South Africa and
India).
In 1947 India obtains
its independence, same as South Africa, but they took a little longer, getting
their independence until 1956. The English language remained among the
population of these colonies, even though they weren’t ruled by the British
Empire anymore. Nowadays, English is an official language in both countries, as
well as in other colonies that in the past were ruled by the same Empire.
Even though Britain had
lost so much territory to 1960, they had already planted the English language
in so many parts of the world with their colonies (USA, Canada, South Africa,
New Zealand, Australia, India and Hong Kong). This is what helped position
English language all around the world.
As years passed by and
the 1960 came, Britain had gained power again and their Industry was rising to
the sky. This provoked
people from other countries to want to make business with the English market,
and to do so, they first needed to know English. That is why the majority of
the big businesses around the world searched for people who spoke English
clearly (also because of the huge industry the United States has).
The United Kingdom has a
lot of prestigious and popular colleges such as: Oxford, University of London,
Kingston, Cambridge, Birmingham and so on. This makes that students from all
around the world want to join and study in these schools, but for achieving
this, they first need to have a good English level. That is why many
elementary, middle and high schools in countries that their official language
is not English, are starting to teach English in order to graduate from their
schools, because they know that most colleges (even the ones that are in
countries that do not speak English) puts you the requisite to know English in
order to study there.
In the arts, England was
one of the most powerful countries around the world in the 20th
century. Within the USA, Britain had a lot of power in music with bands like
The Beatles (for many people consider the best band of all times), Queen and The
Rolling Stones, all of which were very popular around the world. In the big
screen, movies such as The Third Man, Life of Brain and Four Wedding and a
Funeral, also gained power around the world being the some of the top movie sellers
in the theaters. In literature, England had really good novels that were very
famous all around the world, like 1984 by George Orwell, Rebecca by Daphne du
Maurier and Atonement by Ian McEwan. This also helped the English language go
to places where this language is not spoken and making people know more
English.
To conclude with this article, the British Empire is the main reason of
the position the English Language has nowadays. After all the colonies
taken by the Englishman, the culture, language, customs and traditions were
spread among the population of each colony. The expansion of the British Empire
history does impact a lot in the English language since the 16th
century until what we know as of today. Starting from the first colonization’s
that took place in America, the Industrial Revolution, World War I, World War
II and the country’s development years after the war that keep making Britain
gain more power.
As mentioned before if Britain hadn’t attacked Spain the
spanish would have been the ones to colonize America and most of the world as
Britain did; and maybe the world language would be Spanish and not English.
Britain did some strategic moves when colonizing. By colonizing United States
in America, one of the places with more habitants in the world, as well as the colonization of India because of the large population it has, location of the country and territory. An other important event that affected the influence of the English language is that in times of war, this was the language used by soldiers and people to communicate among them or send signs to ships with verbal and no verbal
expressions.
Today in the 20th century English is still
a language spoken all around the world, obviously now a days it’s not used to
communicate or give signs to ships but it’s almost essential for people to make
business in other parts of the world and even to communicate casually with
people you get to know from other countries not same as yours.
Bibliography
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HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa16
Industrial Revolution. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/287086/Industrial-Revolution
Minority Ethnic English. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/minority-ethnic/
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