滑鐵盧戰役200週年 至今影響世界的5件事

It might be 200 years since the Battle of Waterloo on Thursday, but the repercussions of the battle are still being felt today.
到週四，滑鐵盧戰役將已經過去200年，但人們至今仍能感受到它帶來的影響。

Waterloo laid the groundwork for Nato and the United Nations
奠定了北約和聯合國的基礎

Only 36% of Wellington’s Army were actually British, the rest comprised of Dutch and Belgian nationals and soldiers from various German duchies. Then there was the 50,000 strong Prussian army (Prussia later became a part of Germany), which worked in alliance with Wellington’s forces to defeat the French, which explains why U.K.’s former defence chief Lord Bramall called Waterloo “the first Nato operation.”
威靈頓的軍隊中只有36%的英國人，其餘來自荷蘭、比利時和各德意志公國。此外還有5萬名強壯的普魯士（後來成爲德國的一部分）士兵和威靈頓的軍隊一起擊敗了法國人。這就是爲什麼前英國國防總參謀長彭英武稱滑鐵盧爲“第一次北約合作”。

In Lord Byron’s poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, “united nations” was mentioned in the Waterloo Passage. This was picked up by Winston Churchill when discussing the allied war aims after Pearl Harbor and the term was eventually used to name the famous global organisation.
拜倫勳爵的詩作《恰爾德·哈羅德遊記》中關於滑鐵盧的段落裏提到了“聯合國家”一詞。在珍珠港事件後，溫斯頓·丘吉爾在討論聯合作戰的目標時使用了這個詞。最後，它成爲了著名國際組織的名稱。

It paved the way for the U.K. to become a global power
奠定了英國全球霸權的基礎

The Vienna Treaty that followed Waterloo didn’t give the U.K. land in Europe, but it did hand over territorial possessions, such as modern day South Africa, Trinidad and Sri Lanka. These become the strategic naval bases the U.K. subsequently used to control its vast colonial empire.
滑鐵盧戰役後的維也納會議上，英國雖然沒有得到位於歐洲大陸的領土，但卻獲得了今天的南非、特立尼達、斯里蘭卡等地的所有權。這些地區成爲英國海軍的戰略基地，隨後被用來控制它龐大的殖民帝國。

And laid the foundations for the eventual emergence of the U.S. as the world’s superpower
奠定了美國最終獲得世界霸權的基礎

With war disrupting European industry, demand for American products increased massively during the Napoleonic Wars, with its neutrality allowing it to sell to both sides.
戰爭破壞了歐洲的工業。拿破崙戰爭期間，對美國產品的需求大大增加。由於美國的中立身份，它可以向交戰雙方出售貨物。

The battle heralded an age of German nationalism, eventually leading to World War II
預示了德意志的國家化，最終導致第二次世界大戰

The Prussians’ contribution to the defeat of the French Army at Waterloo entered the mythology of the Prussian state, creating a sense of nationalism which then played a key part in the formation of the new German Empire after 1870. Ultimately, this led to the hyper-nationalism which enabled the rise of the Nazi party and the Third Reich.
滑鐵盧戰役中，普魯士爲擊敗法國軍隊貢獻了力量。這成爲普魯士王國的神話，由此產生的民族主義在1870年後成立德意志帝國時起到了重要作用。最終，這滋生出極端民族主義，並導致了納粹黨和第三帝國的誕生。

It has implications for the future of the European Union
它暗示了歐盟的未來

Waterloo was not just a military battle. It was also a battle between the concepts of the nation state and the supranational state. The U.K. and its allies were fighting Napoleon’s desire to impose a single state in Europe, which he would control. Napoleon’s defeat meant the victory of the nation state over other concepts such as Napoleon’s French Revolutionary Empire and Holy Roman Empire before it. Two hundred years later, the idea of a pan-European state has become more fashionable but is resisted by many.
滑鐵盧戰役不僅是軍事上的，它還是國家與超國家之間的觀念之爭。拿破崙的失敗意味着他的法國大革命帝國和之前的神聖羅馬帝國的理念輸給了國家主義。200年後的今天，泛歐洲的理念越來越流行，但仍然存在許多反對者。