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A common language for all of humanity is an ancient dream - a dream which had to fail on account of inadequate education, lacking technological prerequisites, and finally, because the need wasn't really there. Esperanto, as a consequence, never became more than a pastime for hobby adherers.
To some extent, Latin was a common language in Europe and fringe areas up to the late middle age. The need for international communications, however, was limited to clerics and high nobility. For a period of time, French was the European court language. The broader population, however, hardly had the opportunity to move between language areas and had no practical need for a world language.
Apart from vacation in the Toscana, globalization is a totally new phenomenon for the broad masses - one which has only fully come into motion through the communications revolution since the change of the millennium. The megatrend globalization results in a compelling need to find a common language. This common language will be English.
English was spread throughout the world as part of colonial imperialism. British economic dominance was replaced by American economic dominance after WWII. The language remained English all the same. The USA and Canada, being immigration-friendly and rich countries, attracted the best scientist and the best intellectuals from all over the world after WWII, with the result that no other world region was anywhere near as innovative as North America. From Disney to Coca Cola, from Microsoft to Steven Spielberg - American culture and the American economy has dominated the world scene from Berlin to Beijing for almost three generations. The language of science is English. The language of commerce is English. The language of tourism is mostly English.
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