Historically, the distribution of languages in the world reflected the distribution of world power. The most widely used languages, such as English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian, are or were the languages of the empires, and these empires actively promoted other nations to use their languages. Changes in the distribution of power have resulted in changes in language use. Britain and France have both insisted on using their own languages in their colonies, but most of the former colonies have tried to replace the empire with their native language to varying degrees after independence, and achieved varying degrees of success.
meant to illustrate?
Colonial rule has a profound impact on the distribution of languages.