世界史上的太平洋时代

The Pacific Age in World History

最早使用太平洋时代(Pacific Age)一词的是一位日本政治经济学家稲垣満次郎(Inagaki Manjirō)稲垣在19世纪80年代末入读剑桥大学,其间师从英国历史学家西莱(John Robert Seeley),在其指导下研究大不列颠帝国对外扩张政策的历史。西莱曾受德国地理学家卡尔·李特尔(Carl Ritter)的影响。经由稲垣,某种带有19世纪欧洲理想主义色彩的语辞,被引入有关太平洋地区之未来的讨论当中。这过程本身已耐人寻味,那种因不同语境间概念之转化所导致的观察视角之切换似乎更引人入胜。

The idea of the world s economic,political,and cultural center moving from Europe to the Pacific region is already more than 100 years old.The term Pacific Age was coined in Japan in 1892,and around the turn of the century the idea was discussed in the United States and Australia.During the 1920s it became a catchword among Pacific liberal intellectuals,but the gloom of the 1930s ended the vision.In 1967 the idea reappeared in connection with the emerging Pacific integration process,and rapid economic development in east Asia has kept the optimistic vision alive since then.