You can imagine history's grim inventory of war and destruction being laid out before them as they examined how, from the 15th century, empires and upstarts had often fought for supremacy.

你可以想象，当他们研究从15世纪起老牌帝国与新兴国家通过战争争夺霸权的情况时，历史上关于战争与毁灭的史实在他们面前一览无余。

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Obviously, World War One is-- unleashes the demons of the twentieth century; nobody could have anticipated that all these empires would collapse.

很明显,一战,释放了二十世纪的恶魔,没人能料到,那些帝国会分崩离析

耶鲁公开课 - 1871年后的法国课程节选

World War I is a war of empires which comes to its culmination point when a state gets into it.

WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Charles Hill: The Empire Strikes Back

World War II is a war of empires against the state system.

WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Charles Hill: The Empire Strikes Back

The first was born in 1723 and the last died in 1813 a period of emerging empires, generating enough war, revolution and trade to absorb any number of precarious Scots.

ECONOMIST: Retracing the steps of one 18th-century Scottish family