Dear England formed in the fires of war.
First there were the warring Brythonic tribes of England, who likes to fight each other. Then the Romans came and bashed a few skulls together.
Then at the fall of the Roman Empire, a load of Germans came over and ruled/interbred with the native Celts (just like the Romans had interbred with the Natives).
Then they liked fighting each other.
Then the Normans, bad tempered Vikings who loved both war and living in northern France (for some reason), who came and bashed a few skulls together, who also came and ruled over us/interbred.
SO now we have the (70% Celtic) English who live in one of the oldest, if not THE oldest, modernly recognisable modern country in the world. Who liked fighting and hating the french in equal measure.
The Middle Ages were pretty much the English beating everyone to a pulp (especially the French) until they ran out of money and got pushed back. We loved to use the 5 foot 5 inch welsh advanced composite version of the longbow. we loved it so much we designed and built the famous 6 foot, up to 150lb pull version in the first ten years of the 1300's.
Then the renaissance, followed by the Industrial revolution (starting in the 1650's) happened and England became one of the foremost countries for technology, business, trading and industry, becoming hellishly rich and building the first 80-85% of its empire-fueling trading/business empire before the Act of Union with Scotland in 1707.
The English had also, parallel to becoming great in the home country, started building a load of colonies on various little islands globally, as well as North America, some parts of Africa and Oceania too. English, and later British, rule wasn't without hiccups and problems, but by and large the British Empire was one of the most benevolent European Empires. We also started and maintained a 500 year winning streak, only broken by the US War for Independence (which was actually a civil war).