陳蕙雅思教材 - 雅思閱讀精選 (The War between Britain and France)

The War  between  Britain and  France

In the late eighteenthcentury, battles raged in almost every corner of

Europe, as well as in theMiddle East,     South Africa, the WestIndies, and

Latin America. Inreality, however, there was only one major war during

this     time, the war between Britain and France.All other battles were

ancillary to this largerconflict, and were often   at leastpartially

related to itsantagonists' goals and strategies. France sought total  

domination  of Europe. This goal was obstructed by Britishindependence and

Britain's effortsthroughout the continent to thwart Napoleon;           through

treaties, Britain  built coalitions  (not   dissimilar in  concept  to  

today's   NATO) guaranteeing  Britishparticipation in all major European

conflicts. These twoantagonists were poorly matched, insofar as they had

very    unequal strengths: France was predominant onland, Britain at sea. The

French knew  that, short of defeating  the   British navy, their  only hope

of  victory was to close all  the ports of Europe to British ships.

Accordingly, France setout to overcome Britain by extending its military

domination from Moscow toLisbon, from        Jutland to Calabria.All  of this  

entailed tremendous  risk, because France did not have themilitary

resources to  control this much territory and still protectitself and

maintain order at home.

French strategistscalculated that a navy of 150 ships would provide the

force necessary to defeatthe British        navy. Such a forcewould give France

a three-to-two advantageover Britain. This advantage was deemed necessary      

because of Britain'ssuperior sea skills and technology, and also because

Britain would be fightinga defensive      war, allowing it to winwith fewer

forces. Napoleon  never lost   sight  of  his  goal,  because  Britain  

represented  the     last   substantial

impediment to his controlof Europe. As his force neared that goal,

Napoleon grewincreasingly impatient and began planning an immediate

attack.

英法戰爭

在 18 世紀後期，戰爭爆發於歐洲大陸的幾乎每一個角落，在中東、南非、西印度群島、 拉丁美洲亦都是如此。  

然而實際上，在這一時期只有一場主要的戰爭，那就是英法之間的 戰爭。  所有其他戰爭都服從於這一更大的爭端，至少是與這兩個對手的目標和戰略有某些 關聯。

法國力圖統治整個歐洲，而英國的自主及其力圖在整個歐洲大陸挫敗拿破崙的種種

努力都是法國實現這一目標的障礙。英國通過條約建立了聯盟(和今天北約的概念沒有什麼 不同)以保證英國插手所有歐洲的主要爭端。

這兩個對頭並不是一對好對手，因為他們的力 量極不均衡：法蘭西在陸地上稱王，英格蘭則在海上稱霸。  法國人明白，如果不能擊敗英

國海軍，他們勝利的唯一希望就是讓歐洲的所有港口都對英國艦船關閉。  於是，法國將其

軍事佔領從莫斯科延伸到里斯本，從尤特蘭延伸到卡拉布裡亞，企圖以此來制服英國。  所

有這些行動包含著巨大的風險，因為法國並不具備足夠的軍事資源，來控制這麼多地盤，同 時又能保護自己，維持國內的秩序。法國戰略家們的算盤是，其海軍若擁有

150 艘軍艦，則 將足以擊跨英國海軍。 這樣的武力將使法國對英國具有 3 比 2 的優勢。 這種優勢被認為是

必不可少的，因為英國人具有超群的海上技能和技術，並且打的是一場防禦戰爭，使它能以 少勝多。

拿破崙從未忘卻他的目標，因為英國是他統治全歐的最後一個重大的障礙。 隨著 他的力量越來越靠近這個目標，拿破崙變得越來越不耐煩起來，開始策劃立即攻擊。