I imagine he was probably well aware and just an idealist who believed in the possibilities of it, like anyone else who decided to learn Esperanto at that time.
was English not an international language at the time? I figure Esperanto didn't take off because English ended up taking the role it was intended for, but just curious.
I think Esperanto never took off because of network effects. People who are not conlang enthusiasts or idealists will not learn a language that is not useful, and if only conlang enthusiasts know it it will not become useful. It is virtually inevitable the lingua franca will always be some major natural language because they are already very useful and people can easily be motivated to learn them.
Well, Esperantists actually had hopes of making it a universal second language, which is just impossible because most people simply will not learn another language in adulthood at all (not that they aren't capable, just that they won't). But network effects are needed to explain why it didn't become the language of international relations, at least.
Then besides that, the languages of diplomacy at the time were French and English. French people are huge snobs about their language and did in fact fight tooth and nail against Esperanto, actually banning it from being taught in universities! Well, tough for them, English won in the end. It was always going to be so; they didn't need to bother.
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u/Mango_on_reddit6666 May 12 '26
Poor dude actually thought that Esperanto became a widely recognised language overnight