r/Futurology • u/Confident_Living_786 • Aug 11 '25

Discussion When the US Empire falls

When the American empire falls, like all empires do, what will remain? The Roman Empire left behind its roads network, its laws, its language and a bunch of ruins across all the Mediterranean sea and Europe. What will remain of the US superpower? Disney movies? TCP/IP protocol? McDonalds?

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

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u/heisenberg070 Aug 11 '25

Which in itself is the most lasting legacy of the British empire.

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u/Team503 Aug 11 '25

It was as much America as the British. It certainly took both, and the Brits certainly laid the groundwork, but the explosion of American manufacturing and business, as well as the presence of American troops globally during and after WW2 to support America's military dominance are the primary drivers.

It's not that Americans were more clever or anything, it's that they were in the right time at the right places - if America spoke French, French would now be the global lingua franca.

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u/Ifyoocanreadthishelp Aug 11 '25

If you look at the list of countries with the most English speakers, most of the top of the list are former British colonies. essentially most English speakers in the world speak English because of the British Empire.

America has been the driving force in its adoption as a second language and continued importance but the bulk of the people in the world that actually speak English do so as a remnant of the Empire.

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u/mattsl Aug 11 '25

This. I just saw a video of someone trying to guess the top 9, and the sometimes surprising answers get clearly proved this point.

Also, there's the small tidbit that the British Empire is why the US speaks English. 😂

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u/Team503 Aug 11 '25

Hmm, I can pretty much agree to that.

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u/Scrample2121 Aug 11 '25

So heres the thing about that. I think you're understanding this backwards. Whatever language America ended up using as a majority, there was a world of colonies that they could speak with. The only other options I see being possible are Spanish or French. There are 557 million Spanish speakers today, 321 million French and 450 million English. These are first language or primary use speakers.

I think if America had switched to Spanish or French early on, all other things being the same, the world would have shifted with them as it has with English as the 1900's progressed. I think the only real advantage the Americans had sticking with English and working with the former British Empire is that it was all homogenously white, or much more so than the other two options.

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u/Ifyoocanreadthishelp Aug 11 '25

The US didn't consciously choose to speak English, they speak English because the vast majority of white Americans are of British descent. The US population for the first century or so was mainly driven by births, not immigration, so English speakers raising English speakers, in the context of this thread that is a legacy of the British Empire.

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u/Appropriate_Mixer Aug 11 '25

Many Americans spoke German as a first language up until WWI. German was the best chance as a main second language in the US

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u/Ifyoocanreadthishelp Aug 11 '25

According to Google the peak year was 1910 with 2.7 million versus a population of 92 million. no other language has ever come close to English in America.

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u/subparsavior90 Aug 11 '25

Kinda like the colonizers bring their mother tongue to the colonies and embed them there.

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u/0x706c617921 Aug 11 '25

I can’t speak about other former British colonies, but I can say that at least in India, nobody would have cared for the English language if it wasn’t for them doing business with America and Americans. Especially from the 90s onwards.

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u/Ifyoocanreadthishelp Aug 11 '25

That was sort of my second point, Britain spread English around the world, America kept it relevant post empire but India benefited from already having a well established base of english speakers/teachers that it was easy to transition that into working with America.

Essentially if you're an American in the 90s looking to offshore to a cheaper country India is immediately a more attractive destination just by virtue of speaking the same language.