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The Historical Significance of American Revolution
The ways of history are so intricate and the motivations of human actions so complex that it is always hazardous to attempt to represent events covering a number of years, a multiplicity of persons, and distant localities as the expression of one intellectual or social movement; yet the historical process which culminated in the ascent of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency can be regarded as the outstanding example not only of the birth of a new way of life but of nationalism as a new way of life. The American Revolution represents the link between the seventeenth century, in which modern England became conscious of itself, and the awakening of modern Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. It may seem strange that the march of history should have had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but only in the North American colonies could a struggle for civic liberty lead also to the foundation of a new nation.
Here, in the popular rising against a "tyrannical" government, the fruits were more than the securing of a freer constitution. They included the growth of a nation born in liberty by the will of the people, not from the roots of common descent, a geographic entity, or the ambitions of king or dynasty. With the American nation, for the first time, a nation was born, not in the dim past of history but before the eyes of the whole world.
美国革命的历史意义
历史的进程是如此错综复杂，人类行为的动机是如此令人费解，以至于想把那些时间跨度大，涉及人数多，空间范围广的事件描述成为一个智者或一场社会运动的表现的企图是危 险的。 然而以托马斯·杰弗逊登上总统宝座为高潮的那一段历史过程可以被视为一个特殊 的例子。 在这段历史时期里不仅诞生了新的生活方式，而且民族主义成为了一种新的生活 方式。 美国独立战争成为联结 17 世纪现代英格兰的自我意识和 18 世纪末现代欧洲的觉醒 的纽带。 历史的行程需要跨越大西洋，这看起来似乎有些奇怪，但却只有在北美殖民地为 民权和自由的斗争才能导致新国家的建立。 这里，反对"暴政"的民众起义的成果不仅是获 得一个包含更多自由的宪法，还包括了一个依照人民的意愿诞生在自由中的国家的成长。这 个国家不是基于血缘、地理、君主或王朝的野心。 由于有了美国，第一次一个国家的诞生不是发生在历史模糊的过去，而是在全世界人们的眼前。