I know there is a slight when considering “military” time, but every one agrees that there are 24 hrs in a day. How did we all come to agreement on this fact?
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The first mechanical clocks came from Europe, followed by watches. Even if the land you lived in kept time in different units, you could see the utility of a really accurate timepiece. [Map Men](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mHC-Pf8-dU) have a really cool video about it.
Europeans were also the first people with world-spanning empires which needed to coordinate time internationally. And if you happened to be in a part of the world which was administered by the British, or merely wanted to trade with them, it became useful to adopt their standard.
Plus, lastly, the funny thing about standards is that often the first one will stick around if it’s good enough. In Economics, this concept is called first-mover advantage, and it leverages the network effect. Basically, the more people who adopt a standard, the more useful that standard becomes, as there’s a larger and larger body of people you’ll inter-operate with.
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