What would America be like if, for example, they spoke Dutch or another minority language? The reason I thought of this was an episode of QI, where they explained how we traded NY for the Spice Islands as it originally belonged to The Netherlands. So I wondered what would have happened if the Dutch had gone to war with the British, and won what is now America so that it was their language that ended up being spoken?
The US is well known in general for the fact most of its citizens can only speak English. The reason they can get away with this is that they were lucky enough to be colonised by a country that also brought its language to another 1/4 of the world. Language is a fantastic social tool, tying people together and promoting cooperation. I know it doesn't always work out like that but having the same first language as someone else is infinitely easier. I am sure the 'special relationship', whatever you think of it, works better for the fact Obama and Brown don't need an interpreter.
Presuming that they became independant at the same time, would America be so powerful today if they did not have English as their official language, and spoke a language that was relatively rare?