Discussion Board - Why is English the lingua franca of our time

The language of the most  powerful countiy in the world will be the lingua franca of that time. In my opinion,there are two main strength push English become lingua franca. The first one is Britan took over nearly 100 areas as colonies all over the world 100 years age, and force the loacl people to learn English .The second reason is the USA has became the the superpower in the last 70 years. And the world economy and tec. innovation is mostly  generated in theUSA.You can see the top 500 companies in the world ,you will find the majority of these companies are from western counties ,especally the USA. Having a ability to speak or read English might benefits businessman to do business with the USA . So the two reason might explain why English is the lingua franca of our time.