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From: jsq@ut-sally.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Plymouth and Jamestown
Message-ID: <310@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Sep-83 01:36:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.310
Posted: Fri Sep 30 01:36:01 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Sep-83 04:56:02 EDT
References: <11822@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 20

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
{ihnp4,kpno,ut-ngp}!ut-sally!jsq, jsq@ut-sally.{ARPA,UUCP}