England has a long and rich history stretching from the Celts to the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, and from there, the feudal system and the beginnings of king. A historical course spanning thousands of years, with England going from being conquered to conquering nearly three-quarters of the world's total population during the Victorian era. England's position during the Victorian era was one of global dominance and power, and its path through the era and subsequent years has exponentially shaped the modern British identity. The rise of the British Empire was seemingly endless until its inevitable peak and rapid fall that led to one of the world's greatest intercontinental associations, the Commonwealth. Rise and Fall of the British EmpireIt is true that British rule was not built according to the principles of the Equal Opportunities Commission and we must also accept that it was intertwined with imperialism and what we now call racism. In this he was not alone among other imperialisms – including republican and socialist imperialisms.” (Colls, 2012). According to British identity, history has shaped how we see ourselves. If “British national identity did not arise from a deplorable past” (Colls, 2012) it becomes understandable why there has been a decline in the sense of national identity in Britain itself. As seen in Table 1 on the right, the percentages of English citizens who identify with a “British identity” are slowly decreasing. A British citizen “will accept a British identity, feel proud of Britain, and feel strongly attached to Britain” (Heath, 2005), just as any American can accept an American identity and feel proud of the American nation as a whole . The Victorian era was a time when the concepts of "white man's burden" and "colonial domination" were mentalities and the concepts were accepted easily and happily without question. Today the world calls these concepts racist and imperialist, and to no surprise, as author Jeremy Paxman states “we look back on our imperial history simply as the actions of men and women with whom we cannot identify; Thanks to the steady rise of military power, Great Britain became an unchallenged world power. Under the reign of Queen Victoria, Britain rapidly expanded across the world, eventually owning a quarter of the Earth's territory and ruling over three-quarters of the world's population. The figure on the right depicts in red the countries under British rule during the period of the British Empire. During the Victorian era people fondly and proudly used the phrase "This vast empire on which the sun never sets." It was also during the Victorian era and during this vast expansion that British society viewed the rest of the world from the perspective of the “white man's burden”. British culture believed that it was responsible morality to help inferior people in the new kingdoms; “it was not simply the dirty pursuit of profit but rather a commitment to bringing light to the darkest corners of the world.” (Judd, Hall, & Bell, 2015). In the 1994 film version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, directed by Stephen Sommers, there is a scene early in the film in which a young boy, Mowgli, is taught English translations from his native language. The conversation between a father and son goes like this: “'What is this?' 'Baloo' 'And in English?' 'Bear'” (Sommers,