音频蒙古帝国西征史（蒙古帝国下丝路繁荣）
音频蒙古帝国西征史（蒙古帝国下丝路繁荣）At their height the rulers of the Mongol Empire conquered occupied and controlled an area of 9 million square miles. In comparison the Roman Empire controlled 1.7 million sq mi and the British Empire 13.7 million sq mi nearly 1/4 of the world's landmass.蒙古国在巅峰时期占领和控制了九百万平方英里。与之对比，罗马帝国面积一百七十万平方英里，大英帝国面积接近全球陆地的四分之一，1370万平方英里。Starting in 1236 Genghis Khan's third son Ogodei decided t
1211年，成吉思汗带领他的游牧部队从蒙古倾巢出动并迅速占领了亚欧大陆。1227年，这位大汗死亡后，他的儿孙们继承了帝国扩张的事业，蒙古帝国的地盘从中亚、中国、中东延伸至欧洲。
In 1211 Genghis Khan (1167–1227) and his nomadic armies burst out from Mongolia and swiftly conquered most of Eurasia. The Great Khan died in 1227 but his sons and grandsons continued the expansion of the Mongol Empire across Central Asia China the Middle East and into Europe.
1236年起，成吉思汗第三个儿子窝阔台决定最大程度的占领欧洲。到了1240年，蒙古控制的地盘包括现在的俄罗斯和乌克兰，罗马尼亚、保加利亚和匈牙利在接下来的几年也被蒙古占领。
Starting in 1236 Genghis Khan's third son Ogodei decided to conquer as much of Europe as he could. By 1240 the Mongols had control of what is now Russia and Ukraine seizing Romania Bulgaria and Hungary over the next few years.
接下来蒙古人试图攻占波兰和德国，但1241年窝阔台死后，因汗位继承权导致的内部斗争使得蒙古人不得不放弃这一目标。最后，蒙古的铁骑踏遍了东欧，西欧国家恐惧蒙古人的到来，但是在占领匈牙利后蒙古人停止了西进。
The Mongols also tried to capture Poland and Germany but Ogodei's death in 1241 and the succession struggle that followed distracted them from this mission. In the end the Mongols' Golden Horde ruled over a vast swath of eastern Europe and rumors of their approach terrified western Europe but they went no farther west than Hungary.
蒙古国在巅峰时期占领和控制了九百万平方英里。与之对比，罗马帝国面积一百七十万平方英里，大英帝国面积接近全球陆地的四分之一，1370万平方英里。
At their height the rulers of the Mongol Empire conquered occupied and controlled an area of 9 million square miles. In comparison the Roman Empire controlled 1.7 million sq mi and the British Empire 13.7 million sq mi nearly 1/4 of the world's landmass.
关于蒙古入侵的消息震惊了欧洲。蒙古人依靠着高纪律素养的骑兵部队通过一系列快速而又果断的攻击迅速扩张帝国的版图。根据他们的常规做法，遇到抵抗就屠城，减少占领地存量人口、征用粮食和牲口。蒙古人这种恐怖的战争行为在欧洲传开，即便没有直接遭受蒙古的入侵，欧洲人已经开始展开西逃行为。
Reports of the Mongol attacks terrified Europe. The Mongols increased their empire using swift and decisive attacks with an armed and disciplined cavalry. They wiped out the populations of some entire towns that resisted as was their usual policy depopulating some regions and confiscating the crops and livestock from others. This type of total warfare spread panic even among Europeans not directly affected by the Mongol onslaught and sent refugees fleeing westward.
更重要的是，伴随着蒙古人对中亚和东欧的战争，一种致命病毒----鼠疫，通过新恢复后的贸易之路从中亚和蒙古来到了欧洲。
Perhaps even more importantly the Mongol conquest of central Asia and eastern Europe allowed a deadly disease—the bubonic plague—to travel from its home range in central Asia and Mongolia to Europe along newly-restored trade routes.
在中亚和东亚，生活在土拨鼠身上的跳蚤携带着这种病毒，蒙古的铁骑不可避免的将这些跳蚤带到了另一块大陆，使得瘟疫在欧洲传播。1300年至1400年之间，黑死病夺走了25%至66%的欧洲人口，至少五千万人。这场瘟疫同样影响了北非和大部分亚洲地区。
The bubonic plague was endemic to fleas that live on marmots in the steppes of eastern central Asia and the Mongol hordes inadvertently brought those fleas across the continent unleashing the plague on Europe. Between 1300 and 1400 the Black Death killed between 25 and 66% of the population in Europe at least 50 million people. The plague also affected northern Africa and large parts of Asia
尽管蒙古人的侵略为欧洲带来了恐惧和疾病，长远来看，也带来了大量的正面影响。最突出的是被历史学家称为的“蒙古和平”。在蒙古统治下各地的人们享受了长达一个世纪的和平。这场和平让中欧丝绸之路和贸易路线重新开放，扩大了沿路的文化交流和财富交换。
Although the Mongol invasion of Europe sparked terror and disease in the long run it had enormous positive impacts. The foremost was what historians call the Pax Mongolica a century of peace among neighboring peoples who were all under Mongol rule. This peace allowed for the reopening of the Silk Road trading routes between China and Europe increasing cultural exchange and wealth all along the trade paths.
中亚一直都是中西陆地贸易的重要地区，“蒙古和平”时期的中亚局势稳定，贸易比之前诸国纷争时期更有安全保障，不同文化的交流越来越频繁紧密，货物交易量随着越来越大。
Central Asia was a region that had always been important to overland trade between China and the West. As the region became stable under the Pax Mongolica trade became less risky under the various empires and as cross-cultural interactions became more and more intensive and extensive more and more goods were traded.
“蒙古和平”时期下，大量的知识信息交流和宗教信仰被鼓励。只要不影响蒙古人的统治，民众可以自由选择成为伊斯兰、佛教、道教或其他宗教的信徒。“蒙古和平”时期僧侣、传教士、生意人和探险家们被允许在贸易路线上自由活动。最为显著的例子是威尼斯商人及探险家马可波罗，他到达了中国成吉思汗孙子忽必烈的行宫。
Within the Pax Mongolica the sharing of knowledge information and cultural identity was encouraged. Citizens could legally become followers of Islam Christianity Buddhism Taoism or anything else—as long as their practice didn't interfere with the political ambitions of the Khan. The Pax Mongolica also allowed monks missionaries traders and explorers to travel along the trade routes. One famous example is the Venetian trader and explorer Marco Polo who traveled to the court of Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan (Quibilai) at Xanadu in China.
当时世界上一些基础理念和技术--造纸术、印刷术、火药制造术等等通过丝绸之路从亚洲传播开来。来自不同背景与宗教文化的移民们、商人们、探险家们、朝圣者、难民们和士兵们，带着各自养殖的动物、植物、花果和蔬菜，加入到了这场巨大的跨大陆交易。根据历史学家马·德斌的描述，丝绸之路是世界最早的大熔炉，是欧亚大陆的生命线。
Some of the most fundamental ideas and technologies in the world—papermaking printing and gunpowder manufacturing among many others—made their way across Asia via the Silk Road. Migrants merchants explorers pilgrims refugees and soldiers brought along with them their disparate religious and cultural ideas and domesticated animals plants flowers vegetables and fruit as they joined this gigantic cross-continental exchange. As historian Ma Debin describes it the Silk Road was the original melting pot the lifeline of the Eurasian continent.
在蒙古帝国之前，欧洲人和中国人基本上不知道对方的存在。在公元前一世纪之前，丝绸之路的沿途贸易零星，充满危险且意外频出。随着远距离贸易、人类迁徙和帝国扩，不同社会阶层和文化人士之间的交流，由不可能到受鼓励。
Before the Mongol Empire Europeans and Chinese were largely unaware of the other's existence. Trade established along the Silk Road in the first centuries B.C.E. had become rare dangerous and unpredictable. Long-distance trade human migration and imperial expansion actively engaged people in different societies in significant cross-cultural interactions. Afterward interactions between the two were not only possible but encouraged.
远距离的外交联系与宗教使命同样也建立了起来，在伊斯兰商人的帮助下，伊斯兰教在东半球的末端建立起来，从南亚到西非，穿过印度北部和安纳托利亚（土耳其）。
Diplomatic contacts and religious missions were established over vast distances. Islamic merchants helped gain a footing for their faith at the extreme ends of the Eastern Hemisphere spreading from southeast Asia and west Africa and across northern India and Anatolia.
受此威胁，西欧国家和亚洲的蒙古统治者试图达成外交同盟来对抗西南亚的穆斯林。欧洲人希望将蒙古人转化为基督教教徒，并在东亚建立基督教区域。蒙古人认为基督教的传播是一种威胁，于是这些企图都没有成功。但政治沟通渠道的开放在历史上产生了大量实质性的影响。
Alarmed western Europeans and the Mongol rulers of China sought a diplomatic alliance with one another against the Muslims in southwest Asia. Europeans sought to convert Mongols to Christianity and establish a Christian community in China. The Mongols saw the spread as a threat. Neither of these initiatives was successful but the opening of political channels made a substantive difference.
整个路上丝绸之路在“蒙古和平”时期重生并充满活力。蒙古统治者积极维护交易路线的安全，建造了大量有效的驿站和旅馆，引用纸货币并消除交易中的人为障碍。1257年，中国的生丝产品出现在了意大利的产丝地区，到了1330年代，在热内亚单个商人的丝绸交易量达到了数千英镑。
The entire overland route of the Silk Road witnessed a vigorous revival under the Pax Mongolica. Its rulers actively worked to ensure the safety of the trade routes building effective post stations and rest stops introducing the use of paper money and eliminating artificial trade barriers. By 1257 Chinese raw silk appeared in the silk-producing area of Italy and in the 1330s a single merchant sold thousands of pounds of silk in Genoa.
蒙古人大量吸收来自波斯、印度、中国和阿拉伯的科技知识。医学成为了生活文化中的一部分，在蒙古帝国时期发达起来。为了保证军队的健康，蒙古人建立了医院和培训中心来鼓励医学知识的交流和扩充。最后结果是，中国招募了许多来自印度和中东的医生，医学知识传递到了欧洲的中心。忽必烈成立了一家机构专门从事西方医学研究。波斯历史学家拉希德•艾德丁在中国以外的地区出版了第一本中医书籍。
The Mongolians absorbed scientific knowledge from Persia India China and Arabia. Medicine became one of the many areas of life and culture that flourished under Mongol rule. Keeping an army healthy was vital so they created hospitals and training centers to encourage the exchange and expansion of medical knowledge. As a result China employed doctors from India and the Middle East all of which was communicated to European centers. Kublai Khan founded an institution for the study of Western medicine. The Persian historian Rashid al-Din (1247-1318) published the first known book on Chinese medicine outside China in 1313.
东欧在金帐汗国的铁蹄下同样帮助了俄罗斯的统一，在蒙古帝国之前，俄罗斯人分散在大大小小的城邦国家，其中最著名的是基辅公国。
The Golden Horde's occupation of eastern Europe also unified Russia. Prior to the period of Mongol rule the Russian people were organized into a series of small self-governing city-states the most notable being Kiev.
为了摆脱蒙古人的束缚，说着俄语的人必须团结一致。1480年在莫斯科大公爵的带领下，成功的打败并赶走了蒙古人。尽管俄罗斯后来遭到了拿破仑和德国纳粹等多次侵略，但再也没有被征服过。
In order to throw off the Mongol yoke the Russian-speaking peoples of the region had to unite. In 1480 the Russians—led by the Grand Duchy of Moscow (Muscovy)—managed to defeat and expel the Mongols. Although Russia has since been invaded several times by the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte and the German Nazis it has never again been conquered.
蒙古人为欧洲带来的最后一个贡献很难归纳为有益还是有害。蒙古人为欧洲带来了两个源自中国的致命发明--枪械和火药。
One final contribution that the Mongols made to Europe is difficult to categorize as good or bad. The Mongols introduced two deadly Chinese inventions—guns and gunpowder—to the West.
新式武器的出现启发了欧洲战术的革新，欧洲诸国在接下来的几百年致力于提升各自的枪械技术。这是一场持续的、多方面的装备竞赛，标志着骑士战争的结束和现代行军战术的起源。
The new weaponry sparked a revolution in European fighting tactics and the many warring states of Europe all strove over the following centuries to improve their firearms technology. It was a constant multi-sided arms race which heralded the end of knightly combat and the beginning of modern standing armies.
在接下来的几百年，欧洲国家首先将新式枪械运用到海盗事业中，抢占了一部分海上丝绸和香料的贸易，最终在全球开展殖民事业。
In the centuries to come European states would muster their new and improved guns first for piracy to seize control over parts of the oceangoing silk and spices trade and then eventually to impose European colonial rule over much of the world.
讽刺的是，在19和20世纪俄罗斯人倚靠枪炮的优势，占领了原本属于蒙古帝国的土地，包括成吉思汗的出生的外蒙古。
Ironically the Russians used their superior firepower in the 19th and 20th centuries to conquer many of the lands that had been part of the Mongol Empire including outer Mongolia where Genghis Khan was born.
