[sammalloy]

What a strange hill to die on. English is the colonial language, and its global success was singularly due to imperialist hegemony. This is taught at the university system level and is in every textbook on the subject. I love a good myth about capitalism just as much as the next exploited worker, but attributing the success of English to trade is equivalent to teaching children myths about Thanksgiving and Washington chopping down a cherry tree.

[awesome_dude]

I cannot see anyone trying to argue anything about why it was successful, only you have decided that that is the point.

I've merely pointed out that it is widespread and that there are (at least) three reasons for people to speak it.

Edit: Note, if you don't wish to speak it, that's fine by me - I'll be just as happy to not hear from you again :-)

[sammalloy]

English is widely spoken because it was the colonial language enforced at the highest levels of society. This is still true today and is currently a primary plank in the political platform of US conservatives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-only_movement

There are libraries of books written solely on this subject. Your bizarre hypothesis ignores this and instead points to slavery and trade. More to the point, there are new articles on how English was enforced on subjugated people published on an almost weekly basis. Last week, the article I read on this topic was about how indigenous orphans were prohibited from using their native language and forced to use only English. But let’s talk about glowing myths about trade and slavery instead which have literally nothing to do with it.