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I have had some decent arguments with a good friend of mine on this very topic. My question in response is this: why does the rise of English as a global language have to be considered a good or bad thing to begin with? Why can it not just be considered a thing? However, questions like this demand an answer, so I will try my best to provide one.

There are four main reasons why I believe English thrives today as a global language: the first is a grammatical reason, the second is a historical reason, the third is an economic reason, and the fourth is a flexibility reason. I will explain each point further here:

GRAMMATICAL REASON
Although perfecting the English language, with all of its exceptions and nuances, is a difficult endeavour, learning English to a communicative level is in fact not a difficult task at all. The grammatical structure of English is very simple: English verb-conjugation is easy compared to most other languages; English has only one noun case, unlike many other languages; English gender is much more straightforward and less arbitrary than other languages; and English does not incorporate tonal aspects for changing words. Because English is so much simpler grammatically, elementary-level students are able to gain the confidence they need more quickly than learners of other languages. Intermediate-level students are usually capable of communicating socially with few problems not perfectly, but quite functionally.

HISTORICAL REASON
The rise and spread of the British Empire from the 1500s onward assured the physical spread of the English language. New lands, found and conquered, were inhabited ever more and more by English speakers. Political entities were established in all lands possessed by the British Empire, and learning English became a necessity for all inhabitants who had to deal with these political bodies. During its peak, it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire, which meant that the sun never set on the English language as well. Today, after a few more centuries, it is not uncommon for people all over the world to have been raised with at least some knowledge of English.

ECONOMIC REASON
After World War II, the United States of America and Great Britain were quickly established as superpowers of the economic world. To this day, world economies measure their gains and losses against the American Dollar and the British Pound. With such economic strength, the USA and Great Britain were able to prosper in the business world -

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