Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Reasons

An anti-imperialist view
louis — (archived)

Let's not forget that the West's historic colonization efforts were all very much part of both an imperialist religion (Christianity) and of chance (a quasi-miraculous combination of factors, which connected mercantilism with catholicism, and capitalism with protestantism).

There's however another model. That of China. China had everything it took to conquer the world (the science, the political organization, the economic power), but it (sub-)consciously preferred not to. When Zheng He sailed all over the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, in the 15th century, he said hello to the local people, but never conquered them. He could have done that. The Emperor of China chose to stop exploring and to turn China onto itself once again. The official exploration program was ended by a simple order.

For Westerners, this may sound unthinkable, because we think it's in man's nature to explore, and conquer. We could simply not imagine not to return after having discovered America.

Of course, now that the "mundilatinization" and the modernity which goes with it has reached every nation on the planet, we will see every nation on the planet trying to colonize space.

And after the entire world has been christianized and thoroughly modernized, we will simply forget the fact that it was not necessarily in man's nature to conquer and explore.

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