What is Esperanto and why learn it?

Note: Lernu.net has a series of pages dedicated to explaining a brief history. It's highly reccomended that you look through them here.

Esperanto is a language created in 1887 by a man named L.L. Zamenhof. The goal of the language was to be an international second language, so that people from all around the world could communicate with each other. To accomplish this, it is intentionally made to be easy to learn - Esperanto has a regular grammar and draws many of its words from English and other European languages, so it should be especially easy for English speakers to learn. Esperanto is also a neutral language, because except for a dozen native speakers, everyone has to learn it, so everyone has been through the learning experience. Also, Esperanto isn't owned by any country, so it's politically neutral as well.

There are many reasons that people choose to learn Esperanto. Many learn it because studies show that it helps you learn other languages if you learn it first, while others learn it so that they can use Pasporta Servo, a program where Esperantists can travel to nearly any country and be hosted by other Esperantists. Esperanto also has a large amount of literature, and many of the books have been translated from another language into Esperanto but not English, or are original Esperanto novels. In the end, lots of people choose to learn Esperanto simply because it's a language you can learn without studying for years, and learning a new language can be fun.