The formation of English dominance has taken a long time. Just as Robert of Gloucester said before, English is a language that humble people spoke 1300 years ago. In the following 200 years, the development of English has undergone a period of old English, a period of French influence and the period of medieval English. 1500 years later, modern English was taking shape, which mainly refers to stable spelling, pronunciation and meaning.
However, English emerged as the international language after the 19th century. The main reasons are as follows: Firstly, from the macroscopic view, the dominance of English is not precipitated by the language itself, so the arising of English dominance in international communication is not solely the dominance of language itself. Just as Professor Jean Aitchison in Oxford pointed out, the success of language has much to do with the power of the people who use it but has little to do with internal features of the language.
During the 18th century and 19th century, the influence of the British Empire began to spread around the world for the sake of the industrial revolution, so English began to become popular. English was used not only in the British colonies but also in diplomatic negotiations of non-English-speaking countries.
However, no matter how powerful the adaptability is and how large the area that the power of English covers, currently, the international status of English mainly springs from the status of America as a superpower after World War 2. Besides, with the development of economic globalization and new political structure, there is a great need for an international language. As a result, English became the first choice. Secondly, from the view of language, the dominance of English in international communication has a close relationship with the vitality of the language itself.