If you forgive me to continue in the same speculative vein: If the aeroplane had been invented in 1800, possibly German would have become the "dominant world language". England had the advantage of being surrounded by water, and her ships were the main vehicle to spread her culture around the world. In the Physical Sciences, German had a very strong international position in the second half of the 19th/beginning of 20th century. As late as 1975, I taught a course of "Chemical German" to students at Imperial College in London. The course was scrapped the in the following year..