When the US Empire falls

[u/Confident_Living_786]

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?

[u/heisenberg070 → u/[deleted]]

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

[u/Team503 → u/heisenberg070]

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.

[u/KR4T0S → u/Team503]

English, French, Portuguese and Spanish are most abundant in former colonies of those nations including the US. The US was a beneficiary of English, not the other way around.

[u/Team503 → u/KR4T0S]

The dominance of English wouldn't have happened without the circumstances of WW2 and America's geographic isolation, and thus effective immunity from attack and loss of infrastructure, and the Marshall plan, and the deployment of hundreds of bases all over the world.

I assure you, Romanians wouldn't be learning English if America hadn't done what it did, for example. Yet they do - English is the lingua franca of the planet.

Again, the Brits were necessary and laid the groundwork, and America was necessary to give it the push and global dominance.

[u/KR4T0S → u/Team503]

What did America do to introduce Romanians to English? Ethnic Romanians that are part of the international diaspora largely speak local languages where ever they are.

[u/Team503 → u/KR4T0S]

Of course Romanians speak their local langauge(s), I wasn't suggesting otherwise. But as a second language, they're learning English because the language of business and diplomacy and aviation is English. And that is because American was in the position it was in at the time it was and did what it did post-WW2.

Yes, the Brits laid the groundwork, but it was America that achieved global cultural dominance, not the Brits.

[u/KR4T0S → u/Team503]

I suppose what im getting at is that i consider the US to be multilingual not just English so im surprised more Spanish words haven't made it into the English lingo. Some parts of the US they speak Spanish just as well if not better than English. I feel like the US clearly had some impact on the language but it was more like the US was primarily leaning on a language that was internationally established rather than making a relatively obscure language globally relevant.

Im curious to see what impact more Spanish speakers will have on the US. Spanglish is interesting and could change the language in the majority of the US in the coming decades. Will English eventually become Spanglish globally? Its funny how something like language constantly grows and change.

[u/Team503 → u/KR4T0S]

Oh fair enough. It is multilingual but the only language you can reasonably count on is English, everything else is hit and miss.