Good point. Also worth bearing in mind that Pax Britannica was quickly followed by Pax Americana, both English speaking countries. The major problem with this

Good point. Also worth bearing in mind that Pax Britannica was quickly followed by Pax Americana, both English speaking countries. The major problem with this though is the massive and unparalleled extent of the British empire. English is the first language for most of two continents (NA and Australia) and official languages for significant portions of another two (Africa and Asia). That global scale is unprecedented in history and it’s hard to see how English would be dislodged without a significant societal collapse. Point being it seems more likely that English would be replaced by a language that doesn’t exist yet, rather than an existing language.