What is the following passage about?
The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496 King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, commissioned John Cabot to lead a voyage to discover a route to Asia via the North Atlantic. Cabot sailed in 1497, five years after the European discovery of America, and although he successfully made landfall on the coast of Newfoundland (mistakenly believing, like Christopher Columbus, that he had reached Asia), there was no attempt to found a colony. Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was heard of his ships again.
British Empire
The context talks about how the British Empire was founded and describes John Cabot's first voyage to North America. It also mentions that other European countries had already discovered new routes which led England to send one of its explorers in order to search for a route via North Atlantic as well.
However, when King Henry VII commissioned him, he did not want to establish any colony there but just wanted his ships back after the exploration. Hence based on this information we can conclude that it is all about "British empire"..