In article , Derek Lyons wrote:

But Jeffrey Bell draws some questionable conclusions about what caused
Nordic and Chinese exploration to sputter. I think most would argue
that Nordic exploration might well have continued to colonize America
if the Little Ice Age hadn't arrived to kill it off at its most
vulnerable stage.

Agreed, because somehow he missed the economic roles of those
colonies. That's what the Space Cadets miss. The European
colonization was driven by two factors a) economics and b) the White
Man's Burden.

A phrase which became famous, of course, used with reference to the US
in the Phillipines... ;-)

http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/wo...iplingRudyard/
verse/p1/whiteman.html (note the wrap)

The 'prestige' colonies of the late 1800's were an anomaly.

Indeed, although there's an argument that the "moral imperative" concept
- the WMB above - didn't really get into its stride until the late
1800s. I can't really cite anything - I have a couple of thick books on
colonialism on my self, but I got half-way through one of them and
stalled. Must get back to it...

(Not that the moral imperative to civilise the locals was ever going to
drive colonisation of Mars, but hey)

--
-Andrew Gray