来自《耶鲁大学开放课程：美国革命第2集第2集》

Okay. So let's actually start with some of the basics.

让我们从一些基本事实开始讲起
The first and most basic:

首先最基本的事实是
If you were a British colonist here in North America,

如果你是一个身处北美殖民地的英国人
you would be living somewhere along the Atlantic seaboard.

你会住在大西洋沿岸的某地
The colonial population was largely clustered

按照务实主义的原则
right along the shoreline for really practical reasons.

殖民地人口大量集中于海岸地区
I'm sure you don't have to be very imaginative to think why.

相信你们很容易就能想到为什么
Obviously, for reasons of trade, for reasons of shipping

显然这是为了贸易和航运方便
and even just for reasons of communication it made sense,

其实仅通信这一理由也足以解释
not to mention the fact that people had

而且印第安人对于殖民者
a pretty healthy fear of potentially unfriendly Indians

在扩张过程中掠夺土地的行为感到不满
who were not particularly pleased with the idea of

人们也对这些不友善的原住民