Why did so many languages derive from Latin?

The Roman empire eventually came to rule over the area covering: Italy, France, Spain,Portugal and England (to the west) and Greece, the Middle East and North Africa.
latin was used as the Lingua Franca in those areas until the 5th century when the Roman Empire collapsed. The Eastern Empire remained under Byzantine rule until the 13th century. The Byzantines, although they had used Latin while part of the Roman Empire, were basically Greek speaking, so retained Greek as their major language. The Middle East and North Africa came under Muslim rule, and adopted Arabic as the lingua franca. Western Europe remained Latin influenced because this area was Latin Christian in rite. The Languages of Italy, France, Spain and Portugal derived themselves from colloquial forms of Latin. English, although heavily influence in vocabulary by Latin (either directly or through NOrman French) remained gramatically Anglo-Saxon. The only other country that uses a Latin derived language is Romania, as well as a small enclave of Raeto-Romansch speakers in Switzerland. Most other Western European languages (German, Dutch, Danish, Flemish, Norwegian, Swedish) have absorbed some Latin based vocabulary through church Latin, but not to the extent English did.

The Roman Empire was huge and powerful, stretching from North Africa to Scotand and throughout Europe. Its influence over local cultures and customs is evident even today. The fact that it was a written language also contributed to its spread. Latin fused with local languages, which also had other influences and developed independently in each country after the empire fell. That's why French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and English (aamong others)all have Latin roots.

Because at one point in time Rome was the largest and most pwoerful empire on Earth. Because of this most people of power had to learn Latin to communicate. And over time it overshowdowed the native languages of the areas where they had the most power, such as French and Spanish. But in the ares where their power was weaker, such as England and Germany, it had less of an influence.You can tell by the way verbs are conjucated and in weather or not nouns are given a gender.

Latin was the language of the Roman Empire and when they conquered or colonised an area they imposed their language on it. The locals then kept 'evolving' the language as it suited them.

to make life more confusing than it already was?

Because all used to speak Latin in Rome when I guess we first originated. Then we kindof moved off and now we speak American!