system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: how did english came to be the "universal language"?
gpt
The UK is arguably the most dominant nation of the past 1000 years, the US over the past 100.

On top of that, the US has been a leader in media, technology, and commerce during the first time in history it has been easy to for the general public to communicate with people around the globe.  That has gone a long way towards making English the preferred international language.