to invest heavily in scientific research.
This effort was dwarfed by the funding of
scientific research undertaken by all sides
in World War II, which produced such "wonder
weapons" as radar, rocketry, and the atomic
bomb.
During the Cold War, a large amount of government
resources were poured into science by the
United States, USSR, and many European powers.
It was during this time that DARPA funded
nationwide computer networks, one of them
eventually under the internet protocol.
In the post-Cold War era, a decline in government
funding from many countries has been met with
an increase of industrial and private investment.
The funding of science is a major factor in
its historical and global development.
So although science is hypothetically international
in scope, in a practical sense it has usually
centered around wherever it could find the
most funding.
During the Scientific Revolution, early scientists
communicated in Latin, whichhad been the
language of academia during the Middle Ages,
and which was read and written by scholars
from many countries.
In the mid-1600s, publications started to
appear in local languages.
By 1900, German, French and English were dominant.
Anti-German sentiment caused by World War
I and World War II and boycotts of German
scientists resulted in the loss of German
as a scientific language.
In later decades of the 20th century, the
economic dominance and scientific productivity
of the United States led to the rise of English,
which after the end of the Cold War has become
the dominant language of scientific communication.
== Political support ==
One of the basic requirements for a scientific
community is the existence and approval of
a political sponsor; in England, the Royal
Society operates under the aegis of the monarchy;
in the US, the National Academy of Sciences
was founded by Act