The Martian Chronicles....:History Behind the Chronicles..... Age of Exploration ...... Dutch

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By the early 17th century, the Dutch had taken over as the primary Euopean colonial power in Asia. They took control of the Moluccas and instituted a new plantation system. These plantations were much like the Spanish settlements where they used native people to tend the lands. The Dutch plantations, however, were dedicated to a single Cash Crop to make money.
The Dutch also colonized parts of North America. They based thier claims to the land on the explorations of Henry Hudson. In 1609 Hudson visited where is now present-day New York City and explored the river that now bears his own name. Over the next few years, the Dutch dispatched some trading vessels to the region, which they named New Netherland. Some more permanent colonists bagan to arrive in 1624, where a trading outpost was made. They called the settlement New Amsterdam and the first large wave of settlement there occured that same yesr

Colonization, an obscene concept now, that five hundred years ago was the backbone of many European nations' economies. In the most part of The Martian Chronicles, history repeats itself in colonization. Native populations decimated, terran cultivated to suit the colonizer's desires, and people that didn't seem to care what so ever. The history behind these stories is long and terrible in many places, but as most historians see it, colonization was inevitable for the rest of the world.
In the late 14th century, some major events in exploration occurred that we today call the Age of Exploration. The main points here to note that sprang a sudden uprising in colonization were, first, the discovery of New World by Columbus, and the first voyage around the Cape of Good Hope by De Gama, who in turn became the first European to reach India by a sea route. One thing to note in The Martian Chronicles, was the Fourth Expedition, which was the first expedition to send back a full report of their findings, after which Mars was immediately colonized.

After these explorations, a quick wave of colonizing of the rest of the entire world took place over the next four hundred years. Starting with the Americas and West Africa, and then spreading over the Indian Ocean. All of these colonies were used almost completely for the economic purposes of many European nations. After over a hundred years of colonizing, England lead the pack with nearly no trading competition. It's especially good to note that most gold and silver found in Central and South America eventually ended up in Asia for trade of goods. England began to abuse its power by controlling other Asian nations to even further extend its power.

In the late 19th century Britain began to see much more competition, especially with the recently unified Germany. The European nations then colonized what were left of the world- Africa and the Pacific. In what has been called The Scramble for Africa, one nation or another controlled literally every corner of the continent. In the Pacific, America was taking control of the very influential islands of Hawaii. Hawaii is the best example of the effects of colonization because not only were there waves of missionaries that converted much of the population, their original religions nearly forgotten, but their population was decimated to less than one third of it's original stature. All forms of Hawaiian government were then taken over by America. Other places in the Pacific were Korea by the Japanese and what the French called Indochina. After the Second World War, most colonies began to obtain independence with help by the United Nations. One of the major reasons for so many countries today is because of all this independence.

In conclusion, I must say that colonization is a horrid thing today and will continue no further on Earth. As in The Martian Chronicles, I believe colonization could see another sudden uprising with space travel, but this time in a much more civilized way. We now have a detailed past to learn from about this issue, so the mistakes made long ago might not ever be repeated again. Colonization is and was most certainly inevitable.

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1870-1914
This lack of competition changed for the British in the late 19th century. European powers had again become interested in expansion, particularly the recently re-united Germany. Nearly all European powers craved for colonies.

The powers mainly sought for the last colonizable places- Africa and the Pacific. In what is called the Scramble for Africa, every corner of Africa was partitioned at the Berlin West Africa Conference. Germans obtaind southwetern Africa, with Tanganyika in East Africa. Portugese obtained Mozambique and Angola. Belgium took the Congo, France got Senegal, the Cameroons, and several other places in Central Africa. The British got the rest of it, altough they had already controlled Eygpt.

In the Pacific, the British, Germans, and French faced competiton now from the Americans, who took Hawaii and the Philippines, and from the Japanese, who colonized Korea and were becoming increasingly more powerful. The French took Indochina and the Germans, New Guinea. The British strengthened thier hold in Asia, Burma and Malaya. All the powers established thier own spheres of influence over China.

Both Africa and the Pacific were places where trade had been somewhat low before the 19th century. All of the nations developed the attitude that they should protect these colonies because they viewed the people as weak. This attitude was especially enhanced because in all colonies, with the exception of Korea, the owners were white and the inhabitatants, colored.

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