From the Ancient Germanic World to England, the Vikings, the Normans, and a Language That Conquered the World The Hidden Origins of the EnglishAnglo-Saxons, Britons, Franks, Frisians, and the Making of a PeopleFew peoples in the history of the world have been as successful at spreading their language, institutions, and culture as the English.From a relatively small population occupying part of a single island in northwestern Europe, the English eventually became the people at the centre of one of the world’s most powerful global states during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.