Back in the 1970s, public schools(in the US) started to teach spanish instead of French. Before that time, Spanish was the language of illiterates and no one would seriously attempt to study it. THen in the late 80s there was a momentary surge to learn japanese. Interest in japanese kinda evaporated after the japanese economy tanked. Spanish is pretty much the universally taught second language in the USA now. It’s different though. When french was taught, they strived for literary perfection. Spanish is more relaxed. More conversational.
I’d say Spanish is also simpler — not as easy as Italian, but easier than French, gramatically..