The history of English is the history of the British Isles, during the first 1,000 years after Christ, Britain was invaded many times, by different peoples, who each added to the language, different words, grammar and pronunciations. In the second thousand years after Christ the English went around the world and created an empire and they imported many words into their language. So the language has evolved continuously and is still doing so.
Who came first? ... and who came last? About 2,500 years ago, the Celts from France, then at about the time of Christ, the Romans, then in the 6th to 8th centuries the Angles, Saxons and Jutes from Germany, then in the 9th and 10th centuries the Vikings from Denmark, then in the 11th the last successful invasion by the Normans from France in 1066. So English is now like a stew with many ingredients from a lot of neighbouring languages.
Where did they go in England? Each group occupied different parts of the country, which contributed to the many dialects in the different parts of Britain, and that is why there is such a lot of different pronunciations in such a small island only 600km long.
Descendants of the Celts are now in Wales and Scotland, the Angles and Saxons in middle England, the Vikings in the North of England, the French mainly inhabited the South East and the capital, London, where the money and Law were centred. The French aristocrats converted to speaking English over the next 200 years so the language of the South East is still ‘standard English’.
And where did the English go later?
During the period from 1500 the English travelled widely and formed an empire between 1600 and 1900 which extended to every continent. As a result there are now a lot of words in English from North America, India, Africa, Asia and Australia.
This is why English has so many words with similar meanings, we can discuss those at another time.
And now? ..... There are now more people speaking English as a second language than as a first language, estimates vary, but there are about 400 million native speakers and about one billion or more who are learning or have learned English as a second language, and they are creating new words faster than the native speakers, so change is continuing…… and the native speakers had better keep up…..