Throughout history English became the most widely spoken international language in the world today thanks to the military might of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, and to the military and economic power of the United States of America in the twentieth century. Globalization and connecting the world through media has helped it to spread even more and gain the power that it has today. However if the U.S.-led mass culture loses its credibility as a result of twenty straight years of record-high trade deficits, or if nations simply refuse to do business with the United States, the power of English may decline. With the increasing spread of the English language, there came the death of many minor languages alongside. One of the signs of the language death is increasing use of foreign words among younger generations. This causes the loss of the cultural knowledge since some of the minor languages possess various names for variations of the same thing, whereas English often has only one word for them. The problem is that hundreds of languages disappear forever and very few of them are born. There are good sides to English being the global language, such as easier and faster communication between people from different countries or cheaper ways of communicating without the need for translators. However, there are many more disadvantages to it. The biggest problem is the destruction of linguistic and cultural diversity, but also unequal opportunities for those who do not speak it as their first language.