> Change takes time. English remains the dominant language for commerce and science, even after the fall of the British Empire. English became lingua franca af

> Change takes time. English remains the dominant language for commerce and science, even after the fall of the British Empire. English became lingua franca after ww2, when the US became the cultural, economic and military center of the world. It was the US that made english the dominant language, not britain. The decades preceding ww2, the dominant language for science was german, the dominant language for culture was french and the dominant language for commerce was american english as the US economy was the greatest economy in the world - larger than the entire economy of the british empire. Given how gigantic the british empire was, its language really wasn't as important or viewed as important. Even at the height of the british empire, well into the 20th century, the british royalty/elites communicated with russian/european royalty/elites in french. I remember reading that the most popular foreign languages in europe were german, french, latin, greek, etc for much of the 20th century. British english was an afterthought. I suspect now it's different due to america's influence post-ww2 and of course that great american invention - the internet.