We all agree nowadays that English is used as a common means of communication

worldwide and it serves as an international tool shared by many cultures to interconnect. Most of
the English speakers in the world are non-native. A Romanian, Scandinavian, Asian or African
might all carry a conversation in English. It comes very naturally to learn English nowadays, due to
the global world we live in. I will be trying in this paper to swiftly go through historical facts and
ideas as an attempt to reveal how did English language manage to diffuse and be culturally
assimilated at global scale, overpassing and transcending individuals` and groups` natural
ethnocentric tendencies.
It is my intention to bring in front of the readers the idea that people think more in terms of
stories than facts, figures or equations and, that the simpler and more attractive the story, the better
and easier to assimilate by more individuals and groups. We all now globally share a common story,
the story of capitalism. Marked by a strong desire to explore and conquer, after the first
geographical discoveries and the protestant (Anglican) reform of the church, Anglo-Saxons (with
strong Celtic and Viking origins) were always there in the creation of new stories for themselves
and for the rest of the world.
Along history, humanity shared common stories as the fascist (German), communist
(Russian) or liberal (English), to name just the most recent ones. If first two have proven to have
failed (despite some remains of these doctrines scattered here and there in some countries), the
liberal-capitalist story remained the dominant guideline in regards to how humanity perceives and
judges its past and its future. The liberal-capitalist story (which has money as central commonly
recognized symbol, invested with value) glorifies the value and power of liberty, which has been
gained through continuous struggle under oppressive regimes and systems. Free initiative has
overpassed economic restrictions, people have learned to think for themselves and follow their
hearts within the general frame of society.
There were several lingua francas along history and I will try to stick here with the Mare
Nostrum civilizations: Aramaic, Babylonian, Greek and Latin. Most of them manifested on
relatively narrow territories if we were to compare with the present times, when one relates to the
whole world. But they all together constituted the nucleus of the old European languages among
which the new lingua franca emerged. These languages developed and diffused around the world
along human history for different reasons, especially economic and trade related, but also religious,
cultural, diplomatic and political etc It is not the number of mother tongue speakers which makes a
language important, but the extent to which a language is found useful outside its original setting.
By the end of the 20th Century, English was more widely scattered, most widely spoken and written
than any other language before. It had become the language of the planet, the first truly global
language.
 It is absolutely necessary not to overlook here the fact that English is considered to be an
easy to learn language. It consists of a cosmopolitan vocabulary, most of it foreign born, with roots
in Latin, Celtic, Germanic and other Romance languages. It is Germanic but it is a Latin language in
the same time, therefore it comes easy to be understood and learned. It will be familiar to a German,
an Italian, French or Romanian. English shares the same structure as previous lingua francas, as I
mentioned before. Its simplicity in what regards the grammar and the flexibility of its parts of
speech, creates a simple syntax. It is a language that transformed and adapted along history,
depending on the territories it has been used. It hasn`t been too strictly regulated and one might say
the principle of laissez-faire applied also in this case.
In the 17th Century, when Puritans in their try to escape religious persecutions got to the
shores of America and founded the colonies of the New England, they brought with them not just
their stories and believes, or the desire to settle on new lands, but also their language. Although few
centuries later Washington declared its independence to Great Britain, English remained the
language of what today is the greater economic and cultural power of the world, USA. Same story
repeated in Australia, where the convicts of Britain set shore at the end of the 18th Century.
Prior to this, in Great Britain, the grounds of the new liberal-capitalist system started to be
established. Anglican reformation, Magna Charta with its political and economic freedoms for the
nobles, the fall of the King and the establishment of the first modern Parliamentary system, the
spread of the British companies in the new-found lands in their seek for gains, all these, created a
favourable context for the Industrial Revolution. By the early 18th century simple machines had
already been invented for basic jobs. Technical discoveries rapidly diffused in Europe and in the
new colonies. Mass production became possible for the first time. Replacing Dutch cities and prior
to them Venice and other Italian state cities, London became the heart of the new economic order,
centre of civilization, of ideas and of capital. New British companies settled all over the world. The
social effects of the Industrial Revolution were enormous and started to spread worldwide, together
with English. In the 19th century, after the defeat of Napoleon, Britain wanted two main things in
Europe: a balance of power and a free market in which its own industrial and trade superiority
would have given a clear advantage. Outside Europe, Britain wished its trading position to be
stronger than anyone else`s. Its navy was present in almost every ocean of the world and it carried
several economic wars in order to gain this supremacy. After the loss of the American colonies in
1783, its attention was drawn to China, India, Australia and Africa. During the reign of Queen
Victoria, Britain became the largest empire ever known in history.
With the two Great Wars from the first half of the 20th century, the shift of power between
Great Britain and USA took place and English imposed as lingua franca globally. When the thirteen
British colonies broke away from Great Britain and became the United States of America, they had
everything they needed to become a world power. They had vast natural resources, an industrious
and hard-working population, and a government established on principles of liberty and equality.
After the world wars and the end of colonialism, the global system went from many competing
powers to exactly two: the US and the Soviet Union. Both had competing ideologies, competing
interests in Europe and Asia, and deep mutual distrust. While that might have normally led to war,
the horrifying power of nuclear weapons kept them from fighting outright. Instead, the US and
Soviet Union competed for global influence. US international influence may be exerted through the
shock and awe of its military might, but America also has a formidable arsenal of “soft power”
expressed in culture, education, diplomacy. American popular culture remains pre-eminent, not only
just through its creativity, but also through its business model.
Denims and hot dogs, supermarkets and skyscrapers, mass production and rock music, all of
these can be found today all over the world and all were born in USA. In many areas of life,
American popular tastes and attitudes have conquered the world and so did English. After the
Second World War the spreading of the American influence was continued by two new powerful
forces – television and film industry. By the 1960`s filmed television programs had become an
important export. First films were made and soon film production companies were established all
over the world. The first decade of motion picture saw film moving from a novelty to an established
mass entertainment industry. From about 1910, American films had the largest share of the market
in Australia and in all European countries (beyond the Iron Curtain). Hollywood has got an
extraordinary ability to tell stories that speak to the entire planet. In music, the process of
Americanization could be seen most clearly in the huge international popularity of rock, firstly
known as rock-and-roll. Rock became an international as well as an American phenomenon, one
that millions of younger people worldwide saw as their natural cultural language. Then the rest of
the music styles which followed, strongly diffused among western civilization.
Thus, one of the most important stages in the process of global unification and of
assimilation of English language occurred, in the last two centuries, when empires grew and global
trade intensified. The first universal order to appear was economic. For the conquerors the entire
world was an empire and all humans potential subjects. A century ago, almost any place on earth
could have become a part of the British Empire. By the late modern era, almost the entire world was
living in the American story, becoming a single monetary zone, relying first on gold and silver, and
later on few trusted currencies, one of them the American Dollar. The global empire nowadays is
not governed by any particular state or ethnic group. Very similar with the Roman Empire (when
Latin became lingua franca), it is ruled by a multi-ethnic elite and held together by a common
culture, common interests and common story.