British Imperialism

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 3

* Why it is so important to be able to make yourself understandable in English.

* How English became such a dominant language in the world.

* A bit more about British history. 

After this lesson you will understand:

But first: 

Let's see what you already know...

what countries can you name where the people speak English as their first language?

On this map you see in which countries, in 2021, English is either the official or the most dominant language.

On this map you see in which countries, in 2021, English is either the official or the most dominant language.

However...

On this map, you see where people who learn English as their second language and how well they score on tests.

On this map, you see where people who learn English as their second language and how well they score on tests.

But it gets even better...

Here you see how people from non-English speaking countries score when they do a test to apply for an education in the U.S. 

Here you see how people from non-English speaking countries score when they do a test to apply for an education in the U.S. 

With how many people in the world do you think you can converse in English?

1. 3.596 billion
2. 1.348 billion
3. 678 million
4. 2.578 million

Today nearly 20% of the world's population speaks English. 

But how and when did that happen?

After English comes Chinese. And on a distant third and fourth place Hindi and Spanish.

In the 16th century Europe regarded itself as the centre of the earth. And the ruling powers were Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands and England.

They just figured out the world wasn't flat and so they sailed to all corners of (what they believed to be) the world to trade and bring back spices and wealth from overseas. But navigation was limited and the first one to reach Canada thought he was in the far East. 

England was competing to become the most powerful nation in the world. And started colonize parts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas

We'll move on to the year 1607. 

This year the first settlement is established; Jamestown. 

It was under King James I that England started to colonize the Americas and Ulster.  

King James I

We'll move on to the year 1607. 

This year the first settlement is established; Jamestown. 

It was under King James I that England started to colonize the Americas and Ulster.  

Ulster, or what we now know as Northern Ireland. But we'll get to that later.

Over the next 130 years the 13 colonies were established.

Over time the colonists wanted to seperate from English law. They succeeded (war of independence) but they kept their language. This grew to be the U.S.A. which has a population of over 300 million people today.

Meanwhile, back in England... In those 130 years England didn't sit still of course. They kept colonizing parts in the rest of the world. And at the height of its powers the British Empire controlled nearly a quarter of the world. Both in land as in population.

I'm not going to spend time on the ethical side of Europe's  domination in those days. Let's just say that Europe's supremacy was quite a farce and fortunately we've grown a lot wiser since.

The commonwealth. a smart move...

In the first twenty years of the 20th century the word 'empire' was more and more replaced by 'commonwealth of nations'. And in 1931 this commonwealth was officially established. Stating the colonies were now 'free and equal'. 

The commonwealth.

Nearly all... today the commonwealth consists of 54 countries. Two countries have left the commonwealth.

Right on time because after WWII more and more countries sought independence. So while all of Europe's former powers had to give up their colonies, the U.K. gave up their suppressive powers but, to this day, keep a close alliance with (nearly all) their former colonies.

One of these two countries is Ireland.

Remember Ulster? Or rather Northern Ireland?

In 1921, after a hard fought war, Ireland became independent. But England played a dirty game; in order to cater to the protestant settlers that lived in the North, they kept control over Nortern Ireland, dividing the land in two. When Ireland established the Republic of Ireland act in 1948 they withdrew from the Commonwealth.

How many kings and queens do you think reigned over the British Empire? (from 1600 - 1950)

1. 5
2. 50
3. 28
4. 18

What was the first country that succesfully fought for independence from British rule?

1. France
2. Ireland
3. the United States of America
4. The Netherlands

If you find English to be a very difficult language, what other language could you learn if you want to be able to speak with billions of people.

1. Dutch
2. Spanish
3. Russian
4. Mandarin

Can you tell me why speaking English is such an important skill?