How 1492 Created the U.S.A.

The U.S. just marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which launched 13 British colonies toward nationhood.

美国刚刚纪念《独立宣言》发表 250 周年，该宣言使 13 个英国殖民地走向了建国之路。

Yet while the events of 1776 created our enduring political system, the arrival on the continent of Christopher Columbus, nearly 300 years earlier, introduced even more far-ranging developments.

然而，虽然 1776 年的事件创造了我们持久的政治体系，但克里斯托弗·哥伦布 (Christopher Columbus) 早在近 300 年前就抵达了大陆，带来了更为深远的发展。

Columbus never set foot in territory that became the continental U.S., but in many ways he, too, launched an American revolution.

哥伦布从未踏足后来成为美国大陆的领土，但他在很多方面也发起了一场美国革命。

Present-day politicians love to invoke the nation’s founders as the inspiration for what makes us us .

当今的政治家喜欢援引国家的创始人作为我们的灵感来源。

Indeed, the president reiterated the 1776 connection in a Columbus Day statement he issued last week.

事实上，总统在上周发表的哥伦布日声明中重申了 1776 年的联系。

But he didn’t capture the reason why Columbus and other explorers are really so important.

但他没有明白哥伦布和其他探险家真正如此重要的原因。

Early colonizers who crossed the Atlantic matter because they initiated a set of norms and policies that became central to the United States—celebrating the extraction of natural resources, disregarding harm to Native and other peoples, and promulgating Christianity as a state project.

跨越大西洋的早期殖民者很重要，因为他们发起了一套成为美国核心的规范和政策——庆祝自然资源的开采，无视对原住民和其他民族的伤害，并将基督教作为一项国家项目来传播。

Europeans had begun sailing westward long before Columbus set off from Palos, Spain, in 1492.

早在 1492 年哥伦布从西班牙帕洛斯出发之前，欧洲人就已经开始向西航行。

By the year 1000 C.E.

到公元 1000 年

Norse sailors, often called Vikings, established settlements in Iceland and, later, in Greenland, where they found valuable walrus ivory.

挪威水手，通常被称为维京人，在冰岛建立了定居点，后来又在格陵兰岛建立了定居点，在那里他们发现了宝贵的海象象牙。

In the early 11th century, they also set up an outpost in Newfoundland, though they likely abandoned it within a century.

十一世纪初，他们还在纽芬兰建立了一个前哨基地，尽管他们很可能在一个世纪内就放弃了它。

The Norse settlement in Iceland became permanent, and they remained in Greenland for close to 500 years, leaving only with the advent of the Little Ice Age and the end of the Black Death of the mid-14th century.

挪威人在冰岛永久定居，他们在格陵兰岛停留了近 500 年，直到小冰河时代的到来和 14 世纪中叶黑死病的结束才离开。

By then, explorers and traders had expanded Europeans’ desire for goods produced elsewhere, notably silk from East Asia and health-enhancing spices from the southwest Pacific.

那时，探险家和贸易商扩大了欧洲人对其他地方生产的商品的渴望，特别是来自东亚的丝绸和来自西南太平洋的促进健康的香料。

Silks did not lose value on the long journey around Africa and South Asia by ship or overland on the eponymous Silk Road.

在同名丝绸之路上乘船或陆路穿越非洲和南亚的长途旅行中，丝绸并没有失去价值。

But spices got stale, which made trading them less appealing for profit-conscious merchants.

但香料变质了，这使得它们的交易对于注重利润的商人来说不再有吸引力。

As European tastes and wants evolved and sailing technologies improved, nations began pushing farther beyond their borders.

随着欧洲品味和需求的演变以及航海技术的进步，各国开始进一步超越国界。

Beginning in the early 15th century, Portuguese mariners claimed the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Azores, islands west of Africa they thought would be ideal for growing sugar cane.

从 15 世纪初开始，葡萄牙水手声称拥有加那利群岛、马德拉群岛和亚速尔群岛的主权，他们认为这些位于非洲西部的岛屿非常适合种植甘蔗。

Europeans had come to crave sweetened food and drink after Crusaders brought the plant back from the Middle East.

十字军从中东带回这种植物后，欧洲人开始渴望甜味食物和饮料。

Sugar profits fed a colonizing race between Iberian powers.

糖业利润助长了伊比利亚列强之间的殖民竞赛。

In 1492, the Italian Columbus arrived at the Spanish court with an audacious plan: Europeans could get back and forth to the Spice Islands faster if they sailed west across the Atlantic.

1492年，意大利哥伦布带着一个大胆的计划来到西班牙宫廷：如果欧洲人向西横渡大西洋，就能更快地往返香料群岛。

Famously, he never made it to the southwest Pacific.

众所周知，他从未到达西南太平洋。

Instead, he arrived in the Caribbean—territory that Europeans had never seen.

相反，他到达了加勒比海——欧洲人从未见过的领土。

He claimed one island after another for his Spanish sponsors, Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon.

他为他的西班牙赞助者卡斯蒂利亚女王伊莎贝拉和阿拉贡国王斐迪南二世宣称拥有一个又一个岛屿。

Once in American waters, Columbus began to hatch a plan for conquest and colonization.

到达美洲水域后，哥伦布开始制定征服和殖民计划。

He focused on three arenas: the abundant natural resources of the islands, the ability to seize local residents for his own purposes, and a fresh field for missionary activity.

他专注于三个领域：岛屿丰富的自然资源、为自己的目的夺取当地居民的能力以及传教活动的新领域。

In his first report home, written as a letter to his patrons and then published in Barcelona in 1493, Columbus extolled the natural wonders he found.

哥伦布在他的第一份回家报告中赞扬了他发现的自然奇观，这是一封写给他的赞助人的信，随后于 1493 年在巴塞罗那出版。

He was particularly enthusiastic about Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), which was “a marvel” in his eyes.

他对伊斯帕尼奥拉岛（今海地和多米尼加共和国）特别热衷，这在他眼中是“一个奇迹”。

“Its sierras and mountains, its lowlands and meadows and its beautiful thick soil, are so apt for planting and sowing, for raising all kinds of cattle and for building towns and villages,” he wrote.

他写道：“它的山脉和山脉、低地和草地以及美丽厚实的土壤，非常适合种植和播种、饲养各种牛以及建设城镇和村庄。”

Towering trees seemed “to touch the sky.” A thousand kinds of birds filled the air with song.

高耸的树木似乎“直指天空”。千鸟万种，歌声满天。

Flowers and fruit were everywhere.

到处都是鲜花和水果。

There were “many spices and great mines of gold and other metals.” Columbus’s brief book enthralled Europeans eager to extract wealth in distant climes.

这里有“许多香料以及金矿和其他金属的大矿”。哥伦布的这本小书让渴望在遥远的地方获取财富的欧洲人着迷。

Over the next decade, American plants like the potato and tomato entered Europeans’ diets; tobacco, which they saw as an invaluable addition to medicine, entranced hundreds of thousands.

在接下来的十年里，马铃薯和番茄等美国植物进入了欧洲人的饮食。他们认为烟草是医学的无价补充，吸引了数十万人。

Columbus admitted to capturing Taino people, the island’s Native residents “by force,” but claimed he hoped “they might learn our language and give me news of what existed in those parts.” These were the first Americans taken captive by European colonizers.

哥伦布承认“用武力”俘获了岛上的原住民泰诺人，但声称他希望“他们可以学习我们的语言，并向我提供有关这些地区存在的情况的消息。”他们是第一批被欧洲殖民者俘虏的美国人。

Thousands would follow in the years to come, many of whom were forced into bone-crushing labor to cultivate the land.

在接下来的几年里，成千上万的人将追随他们，其中许多人被迫从事繁重的体力劳动来耕种土地。

Before he sailed for home, Columbus also began the process of expanding Christianity in this territory.

在启航回国之前，哥伦布也开始了在这片领土上传播基督教的进程。

He anticipated that all of Christendom would celebrate the conversion of Indigenous people to “our Holy Faith,” a process of cultural change that would bring immortal honor to Isabella and Ferdinand as well as to Columbus himself.

他预计整个基督教世界都会庆祝土著人民皈依“我们的神圣信仰”，这一文化变革的过程将为伊莎贝拉和斐迪南以及哥伦布本人带来不朽的荣誉。

After Columbus’s return, Pope Alexander VI announced the Doctrine of Discovery, which held that European explorers could assert a right to territory that was not claimed by a Christian ruler.

哥伦布返回后，教皇亚历山大六世宣布了发现学说，该学说认为欧洲探险家可以主张对基督教统治者未声称拥有主权的领土的权利。

The English paid close attention to the material and spiritual gains the Iberians made in the Americas.

英国人密切关注伊比利亚人在美洲取得的物质和精神成果。

They routinely promised to convert Indigenous peoples and teach them the ways of European civilization.

他们经常承诺要改变原住民的信仰，并向他们传授欧洲文明的方式。

They also accepted as fact that colonizers should harvest as many natural resources from the continent as they could export.

他们还接受这样的事实：殖民者应该从非洲大陆收获尽可能多的自然资源，以出口。

As early as 1616-1617 in Bermuda and 1619 on the mainland, English colonizers acquired and enslaved Africans.

早在 1616-1617 年的百慕大和 1619 年的大陆，英国殖民者就占领并奴役了非洲人。

They became eager participants in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which eventually brought over 12 million captives to the Western Hemisphere.

他们成为跨大西洋奴隶贸易的热切参与者，最终将超过 1200 万俘虏带到了西半球。

Political ideas developed over centuries convinced the rebels of 1776 to break away from Britain.

几个世纪以来发展起来的政治理念说服了 1776 年的叛乱分子脱离英国。

But they lacked the power, or the interest, to undermine the forces that conquest and colonization had unleashed.

但他们缺乏力量或兴趣来削弱征服和殖民化所释放的力量。

The founders in Philadelphia referred to Native peoples as “merciless Indian savages,” and refused to eliminate the slave trade.

费城的创始人将原住民称为“无情的印第安野蛮人”，并拒绝消除奴隶贸易。

Settlers in the early U.S. were too busy seeking profits to worry about the environmental costs of their actions.

美国早期的定居者忙于寻求利润，无暇担心他们的行为造成的环境成本。

Our world today reflects key developments of these earlier generations.

我们今天的世界反映了前几代人的主要发展。

Christianity, routinely connected to nationalistic agendas, justified expansion across the Americas, regardless of the consequences for Indigenous communities.

基督教通常与民族主义议程联系在一起，它为在美洲的扩张提供了合理性，而不顾对土著社区的后果。

The desire to extract profits from nature has not slowed down despite growing awareness that the unrestrained pursuit of wealth is destroying the planet.

尽管人们越来越意识到对财富的无节制追求正在毁灭地球，但从自然中获取利润的欲望并没有减弱。

Enslavement laid a foundation for economic inequality.

奴役为经济不平等奠定了基础。

In a year marking the achievements of 1776, we should also recall what developed earlier—and what the founders and so many other Americans were unwilling to change.

在纪念 1776 年成就的一年里，我们还应该回顾之前的发展，以及开国元勋和许多其他美国人不愿意改变的事情。

Peter C.

彼得·C.

Mancall is distinguished professor at USC and the author of Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c.

曼考尔是南加州大学的杰出教授，也是《有争议的大陆：北美的斗争》一书的作者。

1000-1680 , volume one of the Oxford History of the United States.

1000-1680，《美国牛津史》第一卷。

Primary editor: Eryn Brown | Secondary editor: Sarah Rothbard

主要编辑：Eryn Brown |二级编辑：莎拉·罗斯巴德

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