評(píng)論
打印
Most people had a sense of the American West that was essentially infinite
當(dāng)時(shí)大部分人心目中的美國西部基本上是廣袤無垠的
they didn't know where it ended. They knew there were deserts and great plains,
似乎沒有邊界 他們知道那里有沙漠和大平原
they knew there were mountains,
那里有崇山峻嶺
but it was the sheer vastness of that West that gave everybody a sense of limitlessness and future and hope.
正是西部那全然的廣漠 給予每個(gè)人無限的可能 未來 希望
The annexation of Texas and war with Mexico in the 1840s had opened up the West,
1840年代德克薩斯州的歸附 以及對(duì)墨西哥之戰(zhàn)爭 都擴(kuò)寬了西部邊疆
raising the possibility of the nation advancing all the way to the Pacific coast.
這個(gè)國家得以向太平洋海岸一路推進(jìn)
There's this continental mentality, sometimes called manifest destiny,
這就是所謂的大陸心態(tài) 有時(shí)又稱為上帝天命論
this idea that American expansion is just ordained by God, you know,
這種想法認(rèn)為美國人的擴(kuò)張是上帝的命令 你知道
that we will dominate this entire continent and that is the divine will,
因此我們將會(huì)支配整個(gè)大陸 這是上帝的神圣意志
and that creates this kind of ebullient spirit of expansionism.
這也創(chuàng)造了一種令人熱血沸騰的擴(kuò)張主義精神
But westward expansion brought to the fore the issue that had divided the country ever since Independence - slavery.
但是西部拓荒運(yùn)動(dòng)也激化了 自獨(dú)立以來就困擾并分化這個(gè)國家的不和諧因素 奴隸制
By the middle of the 19th century, a fault line ran across America,
到十九世紀(jì)中葉 一道斷層線橫跨美國
dividing the slave-owning South from the free states in the North where the practice had ended.
將其分裂成蓄奴的南方州和北方自由州 在那里蓄奴被嚴(yán)令禁止
But year by year, the increasing value of Southern cotton
但是一年年地 隨著南方棉花價(jià)格的不斷上揚(yáng)
and the thought of the even larger fortunes it could generate if slavery were to spread West
以及將奴隸制擴(kuò)張到西部以獲取更多財(cái)富的想法
slowly undermined the sense of union that bound the states together.
漸漸地侵蝕著各個(gè)州 進(jìn)而對(duì)中央產(chǎn)生了壓力
