[OT] The Fall of the British Empire???

[doc hawk]

bob bent,

there have been a lot of prosperous nations in history that had no interest
in conquest,


Part’s of Britain’s were accidental—the East India Tea Company (yes, the
same one that messed with the US) acquired India a bit at a time as its
troops (yes, this corporation kept troops!) put down local disputes that
interfered with trade. They spent a full century, iirc, trying to pawn it
off on the crown before it was finally accepted!

British English was never the *lingua franca*.  American English suddenly
took the role in the postwar period/vacuum.  I suppose it was a natural
result of the *Pax Americana.*

I’m about halfway through Gibson’s *Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.*
(And haven’t moved much in the last decade, but anyway . . .).  It’s much
easier to read on an iPad from the Gutenberg project than the 5 pt text, or
whatever is, in the printed version I have.