But, compared with later events, these were movements on a
very local scale – within the British Isles. The first significant step
in the progress of English towards its status as a global language
did not take place for another 300 years, towards the end of the
sixteenth century. At that time, the number of mother-tongue
English speakers in the world is thought to have been between 5
and 7 million, almost all of them living in the British Isles. Between
the end of the reign of Elizabeth I (1603) and the beginning of the
reign of Elizabeth II (1952), this figure increased almost fiftyfold,
to some 250 million, the vast majority living outside the British Isles.