Short answers, pulled from the story.
The English word curry traces its roots to the Dravidian language family, possibly arriving through Dutch carrijl or Portuguese caris. No single Dravidian language holds exclusive claim to the word, as Malayalam, Middle Kannada, Kodava, and Telugu all feature similar terms for spiced mixtures.
Chili peppers were absent before Christopher Columbus and arrived in India with the establishment of the Portuguese trading centre in Goa in 1510. The arrival of spicy hot chili peppers from the Americas transformed mild proto-curries into the fiery sauces known today.
Curry was first served in coffee houses in Britain from 1809. The resulting Anglo-Indian cuisine became eclectic and pan-Indian, but it was eaten only by the British during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
In 1905, curry became affordable for the general population of Japan with the introduction of domestically produced curry powder. In the 1920s, the predecessors of today's well-known S&B Foods and House Foods began selling powdered curry powder.
Green curry is flavoured with green chili, coriander, kaffir lime, and basil. Thai curries usually consist of meat, fish or vegetables in a sauce based on a paste made from chilies, onions or shallots, garlic, and shrimp paste.
It was estimated that in 2016 there were 12,000 curry houses, employing 100,000 people and with annual combined sales of approximately £4.2 billion. Chicken tikka masala was described by the British foreign secretary Robin Cook as a true British national dish in 2001.