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The War between Britain and France
In the late eighteenth century, battles raged in almost every corner ofEurope, as well as in the Middle East, South Africa, the West Indies, andLatin America. In reality, however, there was only one major war duringthis time, the war between Britain and France. All other battles were ancillaryto this larger conflict, and were often at least partially related to itsantagonists' goals and strategies. France sought total domination of Europe.This goal was obstructed by British independence and Britain's effortsthroughout the continent to thwart Napoleon; through treaties, Britainbuilt coalitions (not dissimilar in concept to today's NATO) guaranteeingBritish participation in all major European conflicts. These two antagonistswere poorly matched, insofar as they had very unequal strengths: France waspredominant on land, Britain at sea. The French knew that, short of defeatingthe British navy, their only hope of victory was to close all the ports ofEurope to British ships.
Accordingly,France set out to overcome Britain by extending its military domination fromMoscow to Lisbon, from Jutland to Calabria. All of this entailedtremendous risk, because France did not have the military resources to controlthis much territory and still protect itself and maintain order at home.
Frenchstrategists calculated that a navy of 150 ships would provide the forcenecessary to defeat the British navy. Such a force would give France athree-to-two advantage over Britain. This advantage was deemednecessary because of Britain's superior sea skills and technology, andalso because Britain would be fighting a defensive war, allowing it to winwith fewer
forces. Napoleon never lost sight of his goal, because Britain representedthe last substantialimpediment to his control of Europe. As his force neared that goal,Napoleon grew increasingly impatient and began planning an immediate attack.
全文翻译：
英法战争
在 18 世纪后期，战争爆发于欧洲大陆的几乎每一个角落，在中东、南非、西印度群岛、 拉丁美洲亦都是如此。
然而实际上，在这一时期只有一场主要的战争，那就是英法之间的 战争。 所有其他战争都服从于这一更大的争端，至少是与这两个对手的目标和战略有某些 关联。
法国力图统治整个欧洲，而英国的自主及其力图在整个欧洲大陆挫败拿破仑的种种 努力都是法国实现这一目标的障碍。英国通过条约建立了联盟(和今天北约的概念没有什么 不同)以保证英国插手所有欧洲的主要争端。
这两个对头并不是一对好对手，因为他们的力 量极不均衡：法兰西在陆地上称王，英格兰则在海上称霸。法国人明白，如果不能击败英 国海军，他们胜利的唯一希望就是让欧洲的所有港口都对英国舰船关闭。 于是，法国将其军事占领从莫斯科延伸到里斯本，从尤特兰延伸到卡拉布里亚，企图以此来制服英国。 所 有这些行动包含着巨大的风险，因为法国并不具备足够的军事资源，来控制这么多地盘，同 时又能保护自己，维持国内的秩序。法国战略家们的算盘是，其海军若拥有 150 艘军舰，则 将足以击跨英国海军。 这样的武力将使法国对英国具有 3 比 2 的优势。 这种优势被认为是 必不可少的，因为英国人具有超群的海上技能和技术，并且打的是一场防御战争，使它能以 少胜多。
拿破仑从未忘却他的目标，因为英国是他统治全欧的最后一个重大的障碍。 随着 他的力量越来越靠近这个目标，拿破仑变得越来越不耐烦起来，开始策划立即攻击。
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