Replenishing the Earth

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Why are we speaking English? This work uncovers a "settler revolution" from the early nineteenth century that spurred the explosive settlement of the American West and the British West, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Between 1780 and 1930, the number of English speakers surged from 12 million to 200 million, alongside a dramatic increase in wealth and power. This phenomenon was not due to racial or cultural superiority, but rather a confluence of historical changes: a rise in mass migration, a shift in attitudes toward emigration, a settler "boom mentality," and the late development of non-industrial technologies on frontiers. This revolution, combined with the Industrial Revolution, transformed settlement into a dynamic force, leading to the rapid growth of cities like Chicago and Melbourne. When settler booms eventually collapsed, a new pattern emerged. Connections between Anglo-wests and their metropolises—London and New York—tightened, as staple products and ideas flowed between them. This "re-colonization" reinforced the ties that helped shape Greater America and Greater Britain into superpowers. While the "Settler Revolution" also occurred in places like Argentina, Siberia, and Manchuria, it was the Anglophone settlers who most effectively integrated frontier and metropolis, providing the material power that defined global leadership for the past 200 years. This narrative reshapes our unders