World-building affords a possibility to discover quite a lot of social, political, and historic ideas, together with colonization. Whereas the real-world historical past of colonization is fraught with imperialism and exploitation, it is necessary for world-builders to know its totally different facets and the potential implications of together with colonies of their fictional worlds. This text isn’t meant to justify colonization, however quite to offer a framework for world-builders to make knowledgeable selections in regards to the construction of their worlds.
Why Colonies Occur
There are a number of causes nations set up colonies:
- Industrial Growth (Greeks and Phoenicians/Carthaginians, Portuguese, and so forth.). Discovering extra “hinterland” to commerce with. E.g. Greek Massalia (now Marseilles) was established partially to commerce with the individuals of Gaul (now France). The Greeks, particularly, had no real interest in controlling the native populace. The Carthaginians did come to regulate a few of southeastern Iberia. Remember that these buying and selling locations concerned many everlasting residents, they weren’t merely small institutions like commerce depots.
- Inhabitants Discount (Greeks and Phoenicians/Carthaginians). Metropolis-states can rapidly change into overcrowded/unable to feed their inhabitants, colonies offered an outlet.
- Navy Management (Roman “colonies”). That is uncommon. Retired Roman legionnaires took land in colonies situated in newly-conquered territory in Italy, to assist management the inhabitants. In order that they had been “colonizing” land already inhabited by individuals not so totally different from themselves. Associated to this are cities established in a newly-conquered space (Eire, by the Normans?) to assist management the populace. The “dwelling nation” should have a reasonably robust authorities in these instances.
- Industrial Exploitation (European sixteenth seventeenth century). The Mercantile Principle of the time mentioned a rustic ought to solely commerce with its personal colonies to maximise earnings. It shouldn’t enable different nations to commerce with these colonies. To have profitable commerce you needed to have colonies.
- Specialised Settlement (European sixteenth seventeenth century). That is totally different from inhabitants discount, maybe seen extra as a means of eliminating misfits. The Puritans, for instance, for England, the Huguenots for France, the prisoners despatched to Australia. This markedly affected the colony.
- Inhabitants discount to keep away from catastrophe (18th Nineteenth c). There have been instances, for instance in the course of the mid-Nineteenth century potato famine, when emigration helped individuals such because the Irish who would in any other case starve.
- Pure imperialist colonialism (Nineteenth c. imperialism). It is a land and folks seize, pure and easy, for status, to assist nations declare to be “Nice Powers,” to “discover a place within the solar.” That is the evil face of colonization. And normally, it concerned few individuals truly leaving their dwelling nation, it’s about controlling populations of distant locations.
- Missionary/Spiritual Proselytization motives not often trigger colonization, however can actually observe it, particularly within the Nineteenth century.
Why do Individuals Transfer to Colonies?
There are a number of the reason why: financial benefit, fleeing social stigma of some form, employed to do it, free land, meals shortages, spiritual persecution, higher local weather, you possibly can consider many extra motives.
If a colony is motivated by financial benefit, it is basically a commerce depot and more likely to be a seaport or on a river farther inland. Transportation turns into paramount. If the colony is established to accommodate large populations, it’ll begin on water however others will transfer inland for fertile (free) farmland, most probably alongside rivers.
In a fantasy world crammed with monsters, escape from invading hordes of monsters can be a probable purpose. People generally migrate to flee different people, in the actual world (such because the migrations of the Goths in Roman instances, fleeing from the Huns). Operating from the outdated nation that’s about to be overrun, to present colonies, might not be a motive to create such colonies, however it could be sufficient incentive to create one nonetheless.
In the event you prefer to make a sequence of campaigns with differing themes, quite than a years-long single marketing campaign, colonies could present up in the end. Participant characters might be colonists arriving in a brand new place, or could be pathfinders who discover an space to permit colonization from the mom nation, or they might be locals who discover that the colonists are monstrous (suppose goblinoids or giants) and should defend their territory earlier than the brand new neighbors transfer in.
YOUR TURN: What half do colonies play in your video games?
