To some extent. But less because the British forced it on everyone than because Nigerians, Indians, Filipinos have all found it useful for their own purposes: these are all polyglot societies in which the elevation of a regional language would advantage one ethnic group over others.<p>But how did English become so dominant in Europe? It seems mostly like the Nordic countries heavily adopted English as an international language, and this was a major beachhead for English. German and Russian had historical baggage, but why not French, historically the standard?