[1][2] It can also refer to the influence of English soft power, which includes media, cuisine, popular culture, technology, business practices, laws and political systems.
[1][4] In the early parts of the 19th century, mostly due to increased immigration from the rest of the British Isles, the town of St Helier in the Channel Islands became a predominantly English-speaking place, though bilingualism was still common.
[8]: 269 The growth of English and the decline of French brought about the adoption of more values and social structures from Victorian era England.
These communities were also socially and culturally segregated from the native Irish and Welsh, a distinction which was reinforced by government legislation such as the Statutes of Kilkenny.
[1] Scholars have argued that industrialisation prevented Wales from being anglicised to the extent of Ireland and Scotland, as the majority of the Welsh people did not move abroad in search of employment during the early modern era, and thus did not have to learn to speak English.
This and other administrative reforms resulted in the institutional and cultural dominance of English and marginalisation of Welsh, especially in the more urban south and north-east of Wales.
[15] Anglicisation was also expected of immigrants, particularly at the time that the country envisioned itself as part of a global British imperial community, until the cultural mosaic model took root in the late 20th century.
[17] Close cultural relations eased the resumption of post-Revolution ties between the two nations and later aided their cooperation during World War II, giving rise to what became known as the Special Relationship.
[22] Anglicisation came into greater effect after the Anglo-Boer War, when the British decided to inculcate Afrikaner children in the English language and culture, contesting prior Dutch societal influences.
[23] Two centuries of imperial British influence saw India become the subject of intense discussions around the merit of Westernisation and modernisation on an ancient, unchanging culture.
In the decades after India's 1947 independence, Anglicisation actually became more apparent in some respects: more people had learned English, which now was more significant in its capacity as a world language, and cricket was greatly popularised.
[35] Various politicians associated with Singapore's founding postcolonial period have measuredly praised British influences that they claim laid the foundation for the city to become more successful.
[39] Linguistic anglicisation is the practice of modifying foreign words, names, and phrases to make them easier to spell, pronounce or understand in English.
Today, the anglicised name forms are often retained for the more well-known persons, like Aristotle for Aristoteles, and Adrian (or later Hadrian) for Hadrianus.
[41] The influence of British sports and their codified rules began to spread across the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly association football.
A number of major teams elsewhere in the world still show these British origins in their names, such as A.C. Milan in Italy, Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense in Brazil, and Athletic Bilbao in Spain.
The revival of the Olympic Games by Baron Pierre de Coubertin was also heavily influenced by the amateur ethos of the English public schools.
[53] For example, Mark Dyreson has argued that American attempts to improve the world through sport took inspiration from British imperial models.