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3. London
3. 倫敦
Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam and Lisbon can all be considered good candidates for a spot on this list, but as far as the race for Empire building goes, London is the winner simply because English is the most widespread language of them all.
巴黎、馬德里、阿姆斯特丹和里斯本本都是能上榜的城市，但是就“帝國”這一詞而言，只有倫敦能配得上，原因很簡單：英語是全世界傳播最廣的語言。
London was built by the Romans in 50 AD and bears a Celtic name derived from the word “Londinios” meaning “the place of the bold one.” The city had a rocky start, being invaded by the Celts and the Vikings on several occasions. It was abandoned a couple of times, but people managed to find their way back. By the 1800s the population grew to over 950,000.
倫敦是公元前50年羅馬人建造的，名字來源于凱爾特詞語“Londinios”，意思是“英勇人的家鄉”。倫敦剛建立就命途多舛，多次被凱爾特人及維京海盜侵占，也被遺棄過數次，但最終還是重建了起來。并且其人口也在19世紀初增長到了95萬多。
During the expansionist era France, Spain, England, Portugal and the Netherlands were no longer fighting for European territories, but over colonies. Each Empire had its successes and mishaps throughout the centuries, but with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and with the French Revolution and later the Napoleonic Wars, England came out ahead. With the help of their colonies and their wealth, London reached a population of six million by the beginning of the 20th century. The influence it exerted on the whole world was enormous. By 1939, at the start of World War II, the population was 8.7 million. Only after the end of the war did the country relinquish most of its colonies and steadily slip from the number one spot in favor of New York City.
在擴張主義時期，法國、西班牙、英國、葡萄牙和荷蘭停止了對歐洲領土的爭奪，開始為殖民地而戰。之后的幾個世紀，各個帝國有過輝煌也有過衰敗，但是在經歷了大戰西班牙無敵艦隊（1588），法國大革命以及拿破侖戰爭之后，英國走到了前頭。有了殖民地和財富，倫敦的人口也在20世紀初期達到了六百萬。倫敦對整個世界的影響是巨大的。1939年，第二次世界大戰開始時，倫敦的人口是八百七十萬。在戰爭結束后，英國不得不放棄多數殖民地，倫敦最終也把“第一城”的寶座讓給了紐約。
