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I can't interpret this. Do you mean the supremacy of the english navy due to the improvements in iron forging that gave the english iron cannons first around th

I can't interpret this. Do you mean the supremacy of the english navy due to the improvements in iron forging that gave the english iron cannons first around the time of the Spanish Armada? That world politics? It's true that Germany had better rates of literacy 500 years ago.

wenc 10y ago
No, it is because the British Empire spanned a quarter of the globe and the Americans won World War II. No other language has had the advantage of being the language of two world superpowers with such vast geopolitical influence spanning over 200 years and huge expanses of the globe. French was the language of international diplomacy, but the French language never had the unparalleled reach that English had (and still has to this day). In terms of technology, the Industrial Revolution and American scientific achievements were important drivers too. German was the language of science, but when the vast number of new findings are published in English (due to the sheer volume of American/British scientific output), its decline was inevitable.
- Nomentatus 10y ago
  Those iron cannons, together with a wealth of Elizabethan technical innovations, are a VERY large reason why Britain spanned the globe. The advantage of world-dominance didn't precede innovation, it resulted from it. Better weapons, better tactics, better hull designs for ships, better mining techniques and on and on and on. The U.S. won WWII with no small amount of accumulated Western technology and technological advance. What WWII did do was allow the US (and Russia, but not Britain) to simply seize every German patent in existence without compensation, afterward. If you research Germany technological history you might have a chance to overturn my hypothesis. But the industrial revolution didn't begin there. In any case you'd have to do a lot more homework than you have so far. Japan was a latecomer, and can't count as a counterexample. English as the primary language of technology and science long predates WWII. The exception might be chemistry (German.)

wenc 10y ago

No, it is because the British Empire spanned a quarter of the globe and the Americans won World War II. No other language has had the advantage of being the language of two world superpowers with such vast geopolitical influence spanning over 200 years and huge expanses of the globe. French was the language of international diplomacy, but the French language never had the unparalleled reach that English had (and still has to this day). In terms of technology, the Industrial Revolution and American scientific achievements were important drivers too. German was the language of science, but when the vast number of new findings are published in English (due to the sheer volume of American/British scientific output), its decline was inevitable.

Nomentatus 10y ago
Those iron cannons, together with a wealth of Elizabethan technical innovations, are a VERY large reason why Britain spanned the globe. The advantage of world-dominance didn't precede innovation, it resulted from it. Better weapons, better tactics, better hull designs for ships, better mining techniques and on and on and on. The U.S. won WWII with no small amount of accumulated Western technology and technological advance. What WWII did do was allow the US (and Russia, but not Britain) to simply seize every German patent in existence without compensation, afterward. If you research Germany technological history you might have a chance to overturn my hypothesis. But the industrial revolution didn't begin there. In any case you'd have to do a lot more homework than you have so far. Japan was a latecomer, and can't count as a counterexample. English as the primary language of technology and science long predates WWII. The exception might be chemistry (German.)