SSteinberg.SoftArts@MIT-MULTICS@sri-unix.UUCP (09/20/83)
The Pilgrims left the old world because they were NOT being persecuted and their children were being assimilated. A few more generations and they'd have been wiped out by sheer religious tolerance. Jamestown was founded as a glassblowing center since it had a wonderful supply of wood which was as important then as oil is now. From what I gather, Virginia was heavily settled by people trying to make a quick buck. If we follow these two paradigms we might find the Unification Church and U.S.Steel as the primary explorers of space in the next hundred years. I am not sure if anyone has noticed but the gap between the discovery of land on this side of the Atlantic and the establishment of the first colonies ran about 100 years. If a similar pattern holds there will be a few specialized military/scientific bases in space in 50 years or so, but that the colonization is still far in the future.
jsq@ut-sally.UUCP (09/30/83)
The gap between the (late European) discovery of land on this side of the
Atlantic and the establishment of the first *British* colonies ran about
100 years. It took more like *two* years for the first Spanish colony.
Practically all the hispanoamerican capitals were established almost
a century before Jamestown.
The primary colonizers of the New World were Spanish and Portuguese
conquistadores in search of gold for their kings and themselves and
converts for their God. They had a monopoly for a hundred years
because the Pope divided the entire hemisphere among their govern-
ments, they had the most advanced sea-going technology, and they
had the resources of the New World to support them. It took the
Dutch, French, and British a long time to begin to compete.
Fortunately, the settlement of space isn't likely to follow precisely
the same pattern, as there aren't any natives in solar space to convert,
and the resources available are thousands of times greater in space.
--
John Quarterman, CS Dept., University of Texas, Austin, Texas
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