Screw the English language as hard as possible

1800 is way too late, and even having Napolean win would have no effect (Napolean conquered Europe. Does all of Europe speak French?). To screw the English language you need to stop it becoming the international language of commerce. So no Empire - let the French have North America. No Bank of England. No Adam Smith. Ideally, go back even earlier and screw the East India Company - say it gets clobbered by the Portuguese and the Dutch.
 
1800 is way too late, and even having Napolean win would have no effect (Napolean conquered Europe. Does all of Europe speak French?). To screw the English language you need to stop it becoming the international language of commerce. So no Empire - let the French have North America. No Bank of England. No Adam Smith. Ideally, go back even earlier and screw the East India Company - say it gets clobbered by the Portuguese and the Dutch.
What about the British empire violently crashing due to internal chaos in the metrolole plus an isolationist usa?
 
1800 is way too late, and even having Napolean win would have no effect (Napolean conquered Europe. Does all of Europe speak French?).

It wasn't a lasting conquest. France in 1815 went back to its 1789 borders. If his empire had survived, who knows?

Though I do think the hegemony of the USA has been the biggest factor for English.
 
Greek basically was screwed, considering how important it was in ancient times.

Occitan definitely got screwed.

Thing is, these are 800 to 1500 hundred years of screwage (or more) and screwing English to that extent over only 200 years is impossible. What happened to Gaulish/Brythonic (1st century Romans say they were the same language) where the major damage happened over 2-300 years (say 219 BC-63 AD) and they then continued on a downward spiral over going forward is possible.

Only way to really kill off the language is a nuclear exchange in the 80's, when both the Soviets and the US are at the heart of their strength is not good.
 
I can see your point, but I think Britain can be prone to extreme government with enough internal chaos. Like, say Britain pulls a Portugal and starts getting into all of these colonial wars to keep the empire together. All the wars and rebellions start draining the metropole of money, resources, and manpower. Britain becomes thoroughly bankrupt, and internal strife cause everything to go down the gutter.

What about the British empire violently crashing due to internal chaos in the metrolole plus an isolationist usa?
That only kills off Britain as an Imperial Power not English as a language. This happened in Spain and Portugal but Spanish and Portuguese are still major world languages. Many colonies spoke dozens of local languages and this helped cultural assimilation to English, Spanish or Portuguese because they found it as convenient to have a lingua franca for trade downriver as their overlords did for government and administration.
 
That only kills off Britain as an Imperial Power not English as a language. This happened in Spain and Portugal but Spanish and Portuguese are still major world languages. Many colonies spoke dozens of local languages and this helped cultural assimilation to English, Spanish or Portuguese because they found it as convenient to have a lingua franca for trade downriver as their overlords did for government and administration.
Hmm. So how come the German African colonies dont really speak German any more then?
 
Thing is, these are 800 to 1500 hundred years of screwage (or more) and screwing English to that extent over only 200 years is impossible. What happened to Gaulish/Brythonic (1st century Romans say they were the same language) where the major damage happened over 2-300 years (say 219 BC-63 AD) and they then continued on a downward spiral over going forward is possible.

Only way to really kill off the language is a nuclear exchange in the 80's, when both the Soviets and the US are at the heart of their strength is not good.

I’d agree, it is difficult to screw English to any degree like Occitan. Per the request of the post, we do not have 800 years to break English down, as Occitan was, ever slowly and then intensified in 1789.
 
If Britain lost its empire

India - Hindi
South Africa - Afrikaans
Canada - um well a big chunk would be French, guess you could also expand the Metis over a lot more, and cede the West to Russia
USA - needs to be contained, maybe Spanish Empire survives including Louisiana and Florida, perhaps see native Indian states like Cherokee and Shawnee
New Zealand - make it a united Maori protectorate of someone
Australia - harder, but hardly anyone lived there for ages
 
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