2 The Habsburg Bid for Mastery, 1519–1659
第二部分 第二章 哈布斯堡家族争霸（1519-1659）
By the sixteenth century, then, the power struggles within Europe were also helping it to rise, economically and militarily, above the other regions of the globe. What was not yet decided, however, was whether any one of the rival European states could accumulate sufficient resources to surpass the rest, and then dominate them. For about a century and a half after 1500, a continent-wide combination of kingdoms, duchies, and provinces ruled by the Spanish and Austrian members of the Habsburg family threatened to become the predominant political and religious influence in Europe. The story of this prolonged struggle and of the ultimate defeat of these Habsburg ambitions by a coalition of other European states forms the core of this chapter. By 1659, when Spain finally acknowledged defeat in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, the political plurality of Europe—containing five or six major states, and various smaller ones—was an indisputable fact. Which of those leading states was going to benefit most from further shifts within the Great Power system can be left to the following chapter; what at least was clear, by the mid-seventeenth century, was that no single dynastic-military bloc was capable of becoming the master of Europe, as had appeared probable on various occasions over the previous decades.
尽管科技的进步和军事的竞争推动着欧洲各国以其通常的互不相让，各显其能的方式向前发展，仍有可能有一个国家凭借充足的资源而脱颖而出，控制整个欧洲大陆。
欧洲能在经济、军事方面雄居世界之首，亦得益于16世纪欧洲内部的权力斗争。当时，在相互竞争的欧洲国家之中，谁能积累足够的资源，超过和控制其他国家，尚未形成定局。在1500年后的150多年中，哈布斯堡家族的联合体，几乎成为欧洲政治和宗教势力的主宰。这一囊括整个欧洲大陆的联合体，是由这一家族的西班牙和奥地利成员所统治的王国、公国及省份组成的。本章的中心内容为：叙述这场旷日持久的争夺，以及在欧洲其他国家的联合打击之下，哈布斯堡欲为欧洲之王的野心最终破灭的历史。到1659年，即西班牙终于在《比利牛斯和约》［1］上认输之时，欧洲已出现了政治多元体，这是不容置疑的事实。这个政治多元体，包含五六个主要国家，另有几个小国。在这些主要国家之中，哪个在大国权力体系的变动中得利最多，将在下一章中叙述。到17世纪中叶，至少有一点是清楚的：没有任何一个王朝-军事集团有能力成为欧洲之王，而在此前几十年，却有几次似乎像要出现欧洲之王。
The interlocking campaigns for European predominance which characterize this century and a half differ both in degree and kind, therefore, from the wars of the pre-1500 period. The struggles which had disturbed the peace of Europe over the previous hundred years had been localized ones; the clashes between the various Italian states, the rivalry between the English and French crowns, and the wars of the Teutonic Knights against the Lithuanians and the Poles were typical examples. 1 As the sixteenth century unfolded, however, these traditional regional struggles in Europe were either subsumed into or eclipsed by what seemed to contemporaries to be a far larger contest for the mastery of the continent.
在这一个半世纪里，为争霸欧洲而进行的战争，在错综复杂的程度和性质上均不同于1500年以前的战争。在此前100年内所发生的战争是地方性的，如意大利各国之间的冲突、英国和法国王室的争斗，以及条顿骑士对立陶宛和波兰的战争，就是有代表性的典型例证。而在16世纪开始后，这类传统的地区性争斗，已被规模大得多的、为争霸欧洲大陆而进行的战争所掩盖和替代。