为什么中国从未被英国人征服? [美国媒体]

quora网友:大英帝国往往做三件事:直接统治殖民(如他们在美国,加拿大及澳大利亚等国所做的一样);间接统治并保留现有的权利机构,仅迫使他们臣服于英国人;或者是一种混合的“定居”加“间接统治”的方法。中国太大且人口稠密,想侵占他们所有的区域还不想花钱,这是不可能的。看看二战时期日本对中国的侵略-广袤的中国腹地大到让他们无法继续并坚持(入侵)下去.....


-------------译者:龙腾翻译总管-审核者:龙腾翻译总管------------



Why was China never conquered by the British?

为什么中国从未被英国人征服?


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Michael Pothoven studies History & Pre-Law at University of South Florida (2018)
upxed Jun 6
The way I always understood it Great Britain never conquered China in the same way as India for a number of reasons. 

我了解大英帝国用对待印度的方式从没征服过中国有很多原因

1. Unlike India which was made up of squabbling rajadoms China was a unified empire which could have mobilized a large army against any invasion force. A favorite tactic of the British was to play on pre-existing internal divisions from Ireland to the North American tribes to India. This would not have worked with China and the British didn’t see an invasion as worth it if there were easier pickings elsewhere.
Partly because of this China was for a long time considered too strong militarily to invade anyway. However the Opium Wars dispelled this notion.

1.不像由很多相互吵嘴的邦国组成的印度,中国是一个可以调动强大军队来抵抗侵略的统一帝国。英国最喜欢的策略是对预先存在的内部分歧加以利用,无论是从对爱尔兰,到对北美洲部落还是对印度,但这对中国不起作用,相比于其他更容易入侵的地方,英国人认为入侵中国是不值得的。一定程度上,因为这个原因中国多多少少被认为是太强大而没被入侵,然而,鸦片战争打破了这个神话。

2. China’s main value to the British was as a market and a source of goods. The main goal of the British Empire in most of its actions was not to gain territory although there were exceptions like Australia. Its main goal as a capitalist behemoth was to secure supplies and markets for its industry. China was the market for opium and other goods as well as the supply for goods like silk and porcelain which was in high demand in the emerging British middle class. Not only was an invasion unnecessary from this standpoint but it would have disrupted the market forces.

2.中国对英国最大的价值就是市场和资源,大英帝国大部分行动的主要目标不是占领领土,澳大利亚是个例外,作为一个资本主义的庞然大物,主要目标是为自己的工业获得供应物资和市场。中国成为鸦片的倾销市场,也成为其他物品比如被英国新兴的中产阶级大量需求的丝绸和瓷器的供应国。从这个立场上看,入侵中国不仅是不必要的,而且还扰乱了自由市场的运行。

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3. There were other empires besides Britain which were interested in China by the 19th century. China was situated exactly between British Russian and (by 1900) Japanese interests. Additionally the French were involved in Indochina (southeast Asia) as well. While Britain Russia and Japan could establish “spheres of influence” within China (which mostly meant control of trade) any full-scale invasion by Britain would have been seen as upsetting the balance of power and Britain would soon find itself at war with Russia Japan and possibly France as well as fighting Chinese forces which although badly equipped would have had a numbers and home-territory advantage.

3、19世纪时,除了英国,其他国家也觊觎着中国。包括俄国和1900年的日本。此外,法国也介入了印度支那(东南亚)。虽然英国,俄国和日本能在中国建立自己的势力范围(大部分指的是对贸易的控制),但是如果英国全面侵略中国,将会被视为对三国权力平衡的扰乱,那么英国可能会和俄国以及日本陷入战争,还可能和法国陷入战争,同时英国还得面对中国部队,而虽然中国部队装备落后,但是具备数量和本土优势

 -------------译者:cyber power-审核者:龙腾翻译总管------------

There are other reasons as well but these three illustrate why an invasion of China was impractical at best for the British Empire and in fact could have seriously damaged them.

当然还有其他的原因,但 以上三点阐明了为什么入侵中国对大英帝国来说是不切实际的,事实上还可能会严重损害他们自己。

And again the primary purpose of the British Empire was not territory but profit. After the Second Opium War why did the British not move beyond Hong Kong? They could have easily demanded more from China but didn’t. They received Hong Kong as a territory and exclusive trading rights in Guangzhou and Shanghai. Hong Kong was practical as a force to keep an eye on potential Chinese unrest against them as a haven for British tradesmen and as a naval base in the region but not really valuable as Chinese territory per se.

再说一次,大英帝国的主要目的不是领土,而是利益。第二次鸦片战争后,为什么英国人不索要除香港以外的其他土地? 他们可以很容易地从中国索要更多,但没有。他们接受香港的领土及在广州和上海的独家贸易权。香港作为一股力量,可以密切关注潜在的中国骚乱,作为英国商人的避风港,并作为该地区的海军基地,但作为中国领土本身并不具有真正的价值。

-------------译者:668-审核者:龙腾翻译总管------------

Pun Anansakunwat Read Chinese history for 17 years
Answered Apr 3
British Empire could not colonize China because of following reasons.
China was too big and populous. British Empire did not have enough power and troops to conquer a nation of 300–400 million people.
Compared to the British China’s military power was inferior but it was not similar to the Spanish vs Inca. The Chinese had guns and cannons as well despite being outdated. In land battles the British were not as good as they were in the sea. For example the British suffered 15000 irrevocable casualties in the conquest of Lower Burma. A conquest of China would cost the British at least 10 times higher than in Burma.
The British Empire did not have money to do so. A conquest of Lower Burma which was much smaller than China created financial problems to the treasury of British India in the 19th Century.
Unlike India that had many kingdoms China was unified under the Qing Dynasty. The British could not divide and conquer as they did in many other places.
Other superpowers were interested in China as well so they counterbalance the British in dominating China.
Because of these reasons this led the British to force China to sign unequal treaties for them to trade “profitably” with China instead of military conquest.

大英帝国没有殖民中国有以下原因。
中国地大物博,人口众多,大英帝国没有足够的力量和军队去攻打3-4亿人口的国家,与英国相比,中国的军队力量处于劣等,但这跟西班牙人和印加人的战争不一样,中国人有枪和加农炮,尽管这些都是落后的。英国的陆战不像海战那么得心应手,比如,英国在与缅甸的战争中遭遇15000不可挽回的伤亡,征服中国至少损失比在缅甸10倍以上的伤亡。
大英帝国没有资金来做这样的事情,攻打比中国更小的缅甸已经给19世界的英殖民印度政府的国库造成财政问题。
不像由众多小国家组成的印度,中国在清朝统治下是一个统一的国家,英国人无法对中国采取“分而治之”的策略。
其他的超级大国也对中国虎视眈眈,因此削弱了英国人在中国的强势地位。
因为这些原因,导致英国人放弃武力攻打,逼迫中国签订不平等条约,使他们跟中国的贸易处于有利地位。

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Anmol Monga works at Students
Answered Mar 9
This is my personal opinion the british conquest of India was a very big fluke of history. As much people like to say India was a bunch warring states India wasn’t. India like everywhere else in the world had periods of unification followed by periods of disunity and then this cycles repeats over and over again. British Empires conquest of India took over 200yrs. In around 1670s mughal empire collapses and the governors of mughal empire gains control of the various regions of India. The Nizam of Hyderabad Nawab of OudhNawab of Bengal etc all take their titles from the mughal emperor. The Mughal empire was brought down by the guerrilla war of marathas and religious zealotry of Aurangazeb(The last mughal emperor). All european powers existed since 1500s in India but they could’nt challenge the mughal emperor. The portugese Dutch British etc tried and failed.

这是我个人的观点,英国人征服印度是历史上的一个大偶然事件,正如很多人喜欢说印度是由一群相互战争的邦国组成的,其实不是的。印度就像世界上其他任何一个地方一样,合久必分,分久必合,如此循环往复。大英帝国征服印度花了200年时间。在1670年代,莫卧儿帝国崩溃,莫卧儿帝国的统治者取得了印度各地区的控制权,海德拉巴邦的大君,阿瓦德邦的总督,孟加拉的总督等等都从莫卧儿帝国得到了权利。莫卧儿帝国被马拉塔人的游击战争和奥朗则布(最后一位莫卧儿国王)的宗教狂热摧毁。所有的欧洲势力自从1500年代开始就在印度存在,但是他们没人能挑战莫卧儿帝国,葡萄牙人,荷兰人,英国人等都试过但最终都失败了。

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Even after the fall of the mughal empire it was’nt the british who were the prime growing power in India. It was the Marathas. The Marathas beat the british in two preceding wars and were the prime power in India which controlled Delhi. Now what happened was battle of panipat 2 between Invading persian emperor Nadir shah and the marathas. It was a phyrric victory for the Nadir Shah but it broke the resolve of both the empires. With that battle maratha empire lost all its leadership and went into decline. By this time India in a constant state of war(Very similar to Chinese warring state period and period after the collapse of the Ming empire) had exhausted themselves. British like vultures swooped in and conquered the carcass of the Maratha empire Bengal and the rest of the subcontinent. Now if marathas would have won panipat 2 it would have been very different. British were not militistically more advanced than India. Infact british adopted a lot of Indian technology like the congreve rockets Ship Building techniques. Most of the british wooden ships were build in India by Indian Ship Builders Cannory technology Steel works. China did have a similar fate like India before the ww1 period. It was similar fate as India.
China not falling to the british is a norm and India falling is against the norm to answer your question. British conquest of India was because british were at the right place at the right time.

甚至在莫卧儿王朝崩溃后,英国也不是印度的主要势力。是马拉塔人。马拉塔人在先前的两场战争中打败了英国人,成为了印度的主要势力,控制着德里。然后发生了第二次帕尼帕特战役,入侵的波斯皇帝Nadir同马拉塔人之间的战争。最终Nadir国王赢了,但是也打碎了两个帝国的决心。在那次战役之后,马拉塔帝国失去了自己的领导地位并衰弱。这时候的印度不断的处于战争之中(类似于中国的战国其实和明朝灭亡之后的那段时期),所以搞得自己精疲力尽。所以英国乘虚而入,征服了马拉塔人的地盘和孟加拉以及南亚次大陆的其余地区。如果马拉塔人赢得第二次帕尼帕特战役的话,那结局就不一样了。当时英国在军事上并不比印度先进。实际上当时英国采用了很多印度技术,比如火箭炮和船只建造技术等。大部分英国木船都是在印度由印度造船厂制造的。一战前,中国面临着和印度相似的命运。
总之,中国没有被英国征服是正常的,而印度被英国征服是不正常的。印度被英国征服是天时地利导致的。

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Niko Vasileas
Answered Mar 9
The British Empire tended to do three things either rule directly and colonize (like they did in the US Canada Australia ect) or rule indirectly and leave the existing power structures in place but just make them subservient to the British or kind of “mixed” both settling and ruling indirectly. China was too big and to densely populated. To try and invade hold its territory and not be hemorrhaging money was rather a tall order. Look at WWII and Japan’s attacks on China—the vast Chinese hinterland was to much for even them to try and hold onto.
Niko Vasileas

3月9日回答
大英帝国往往做三件事:直接统治殖民(如他们在美国,加拿大及澳大利亚等国所做的一样);间接统治并保留现有的权利机构不变,仅仅迫使他们臣服于英国人;或者是一种混合的“定居”加间接统治的方法。中国太大且人口稠密,想侵占他们所有的区域还不想花钱,这是不可能的。看看二战时期日本对中国的侵略-广袤的中国腹地大到让他们无法继续并坚持(入侵)下去。

Instead the British preferred to control strategic points in the country (like Hong Kong) and force concessions from the Chinese government. This prevented them from having to conquer and hold China as well as getting into conflict with other powers doing the same. China tried more than once to throw off the British—and other nations which usually resulted in disaster like the failed Boxer Rebellion. But even then though China was forced to make more concessions the British never tried to annex the country in total.

相反,英国人倾向于控制一些战略要地(如香港)并迫使中国政府作出让步。这阻碍了他们攻占并控制中国,也阻止了他们同其他做着相同之事的列强发生冲突的可能。中国曾不止一次想摆脱英国及其他列强,但这往往带来灾难,比如失败的“义和团运动”。但即便如此中国还是被迫作出了许多妥协,英国也从未试图控制这整个国家。


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Wen Ling studied at New York City
位于纽约城的Wen Ling,答于4月2日
upxed Apr 2
Surpose that Britain wanted to:

假如英国想这么做的话

Great Britain had the army size of 500000 while Chinese population was >300 million

英国当时拥有规模约五十万人的军队然而中国人口大于三亿

China had central government so the technique of Divide and Conquer does not work

因为中国有中央政府所以“分而治之”的策略不起作用

China has unified culture and language which is really powerful contrary to India

不同于印度,中国有统一的强大文化和语言,

Location of China also counts China is almost the most remote place relative to England.

中国的地理位置也很重要,英国距离中国可以说是最远的了。


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