User blog comment:D0m0a/Nothgard Empire: Assault Project/@comment-28739144-20161123190526/@comment-29602226-20161124211708

@All4inches,

What you call the "American" system is in fact the "Imperial" system, from the British Empire.

Before the XIX century (the metric system was created in 1799) everybody used medieval units of measurement, and those were different from country to country, and often from region to region. Tonnes, pounds, feets, inches, miles, pints, ounces...etc., were different in every country, and sometimes in every region (google "Italian units of measurement", for example).

Add to that that many people didn't use pounds, feets, inches, miles, pints, ounces...etc., but completely different measures, like steps, hands, fathoms, wands, ropes, cubits, lines, barrels, bushels, jars, arrobas, brazas, estadales, marjales, fanegas, panillas, azumbres, celemines, cahíces, cuartillones, arpents, fertons, felins, minots, demiards, estelins, brasses, giormatas, campos, tornaturas, stacatos...etc.

It was a mess. It hindered both interantional (and national) trade and the exchange of scientific knowledge.

So French scientists sought a system that was easy to learn, easy to use, and appropiate for scientific work, and created the metric system.

However, the British refused to adopt any measurement system that had been created outside of Great Britain, and imposed their own medieval system in all colonies they controlled instead.

Now, you may think that the imperial system is more intuitive, but you think that only because the imperial system is the one you have been raised with, the same way a Japanese guy would think that Japanese is easier to learn than English...

But people around the world easily learn English, which is regarded as one of the most simple and easy to learn languages, while Japanese is regarded as being harder than Martian...

Similarly, people around the world chose the metric system because it is easier than the imperial system. Nobody chose the imperial system on their free will, it was imposed by the British Empire, and I think that should make it apparent what system is the easiest to learn and use.

Just try to use for a day, say the medieval Spanish of French measurement system. That will allow you to understand how hard the imperial system is for people not from the Anglosphere.