THE world—or, at least, those parts of it that participated in the original events—has recently taken great interest in the first world war. Its almost casual beginning, between June 28th 1914, when the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by a Bosnian nationalist and the first days of August, when Germany attacked Russia and France, drawing in their ally Britain, has fascinated historians, while the horrors that followed have fascinated everyone, though in a rather different way. But does the conflict deserve its title? It was undoubtedly a world war. But it was certainly not the first. That laurel belongs to a war which broke out 160 years earlier, in 1754, and carried on until 1763. Though fighting did not start in Europe until 1756, and for this reason the conflict is known as the Seven Years' War, it was truly global. Every inhabited continent except Australia saw fighting on its soil, and independent powers on three of those continents were active participants. 近來，世界各國——或者說 ，至少是那些曾經參與過當年事件的國家——一直對第一次世界大戰很感興趣。它那幾乎可以說是草率的開端，即從奧匈帝國皇儲被一位波赫民族主義者刺殺的1914年6月28日到德國進攻俄法並由此招致俄法的盟國英國參戰的8月初這段時間，一直在吸引著歷史學家。與此同時，隨之而來的恐怖也在吸引著每一個人，儘管方式大相逕庭。但是，那場衝突真得名副其實嗎？那是一場世界大戰，這是毫無疑問的，但它確實不是第一次世界性戰爭。第一次世界大戰的稱號屬於在那之前160年的一場戰爭。儘管那場始於1754年終於1763年戰爭在歐洲展開要在1756年之後，而且也正是因為這個原因她被稱為“七年戰爭”。但是，那是一場真正的全球性戰爭。除了澳大利亞之外，每一個有人居住的大陸都見證了發生在他們土地上的戰鬥，三個大陸的獨立大國都是積極的參與者。 The first action of this first global conflict involved a young officer whose name may be familiar to some readers. On May 28th 1754 a small group of soldiers from the British colony of Virginia, under the command of a man called George Washington, engaged a group of French troops who were interloping from New France (ie Canada) into territory the British considered theirs. Instead of peacefully repelling them as he had been instructed, Washington ended up killing several of them, including their commanding officer. This campaign in North America then continued, with both sides in alliance with local Indian nations, until, two years later, Britain's ally Prussia attacked the small German state of Saxony, bringing Saxony's ally Austria, and thus Austria's ally France (and therefore France's enemy and Prussia's ally, Britain), into the conflict. It is a sequence of events eerily similar to the way that in 1914 an attack by Germany's ally Austria on the small Balkan state of Serbia brought in Serbia's ally Russia, which then threatened Germany, which then attacked both Russia and Russia's ally France. 第一次全球性衝突的“第一槍”涉及到一位其姓名對有些讀者來說可能是熟悉的年輕軍官。1754年5月28日，一小隊英國殖民地維吉尼亞的士兵，在一位名叫喬治·華盛頓的人指揮下，同一夥當時正在從新法國（即加拿大）闖入英國人認為是他們的地盤的一支法國部隊發生了交火。華盛頓沒有遵照命令去和平地驅逐他們，最終下令射殺了幾個人，其中就包括那支部隊的指揮官。隨後，這場衝突就在雙方都得到了當地印第安人部落支持的情況下在北美打了下去。兩年後，英國的盟國普魯士攻擊了德國境內的小國薩克森，結果將薩克森的盟國奧地利，以及奧地利的盟國法國（因而也將法國的敵人、普魯士的盟國英國）統統拖進了這場衝突。作為一連串事件的結局，這種方式同1914年的情況有著驚人的相似性。1914年的時候，正是因為德國盟國奧地利對巴爾幹小國塞爾維亞的攻擊，才將當時正在威脅德國的塞爾維亞盟國俄國拖進了戰爭，而這又導致了德國對俄國和俄國的盟國法國發動了攻擊。 The war rapidly globalised. Both Britain and France reinforced their colonial troops in North America, and started attacking each other's colonies in the West Indies and trading stations in Africa and India. In India, some of the princely states which had recently emerged from the dying Mughal empire also got involved, and Britain ended up taking over one of them, Bengal. The war came to South America when, near its end, Spain joined the French side and attacked one of the American colonies of Britain's ally, Portugal. 戰爭迅速在全球蔓延。英國和法國雙雙增加了在北美殖民地的兵力，並且開始互相攻擊各自在西印度群島的殖民地以及非洲和印度的貿易站點。在印度，一些剛剛脫離將死的莫臥爾帝國的土邦也被捲入其中，英國最終占領了其中的 一個——孟加拉。在戰爭接近尾聲的時候，因為西班牙加入法國陣營並且對英國的盟國葡萄牙的一個殖民地發動了攻，戰火蔓延到了南美。 Like the first world war, this global conflict reshaped the globe. Indeed, it is the reason why the modern world is an English-speaking one. As a colonial power, France was destroyed, and did not return seriously to the business of overseas conquest until it attacked Algeria in 1830. All of North America east of the Mississipi became British, save the city of New Orleans, which became Spanish. And the foundations of British rule in India were laid as well. As for George Washington, he ended up leading a rebel army put together by colonials who, freed from fear of French encirclement, unwilling to help pay for the war that had given them that freedom, and frustrated by British protection of the lands of their Indian allies from encroachment by colonial property speculators (including Washington himself), decided that they would rather go it alone. 像第一次世界大戰一樣，這場全球衝突重塑了這個世界。事實上，它還是當代世界是一個講英語的世界的原因。作為一個殖民大國，法國的力量被摧毀了，使它一直沒能真正地回到海外征服這項大買賣當中，直到它在1830年進攻阿爾及利亞。北美密西西比河以東的所有土地都成了英國的領土，只有紐奧良成為了西班牙的城市。同時，英國在印度的統治基礎也得以奠定。至於喬治·華盛頓，他最終成為了一支由殖民地居民組成的反叛武裝的首領。這些擺脫了被法國包圍而擔憂的殖民地居民，既不願意為讓他們獲得了自由的戰爭而買單，又對英國保護其印第安盟友的土地不被殖民地的土地投機商（包括華盛頓自己）所侵犯的行為感到不滿。於是，他們決定，最好還是自己單過。
三十年戰爭歐洲形勢圖
大同盟戰爭期間的拉和岬海戰
西班牙王位繼承戰爭歐洲兩大陣營對立形勢圖
奧地利王位繼承戰爭歐洲兩大陣營對立形勢圖
七年戰爭歐洲兩大陣營對立形勢
大革命戰爭歐洲兩大陣營對立形勢圖
拿破崙戰爭中的所有參與者
