Mars Colonies

[Leader Bee]

As per this thread and the following quote it got me thinking:

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=49668

 

Ah, but then we can expand "us" to include everyone on earth, something we couldn't do without having a "them" off our planet. I really do think going into space will unify Earth, at least a little. (If done internationally or independently.) Also, we'll once again have a frontier, rather than having to fight others for territory.

 

If we were to colonise another planet would it unify us as a race or would it unify us against the colonists? Consider that space colonisation is expensive and that we could initially afford to fund such a venture and send enough humans to Mars as to create a self sustaining environment.

 

Now consider that because we're satisfied with the self sustaining environment the colonists have created for themselves on Mars we decide that we no longer wish to fund these expensive trips to provide supplies and aids to "the new world", our colonists are now free to do as they please and develop their own society, their own beliefs and govornment.

 

Of course there will still be trips to Mars by the Earth Govornment to regulate their new colony, but they're expensive and "Earthers" won't vist Mars all too often unless it's somethign really important.

 

Question: Will the seperation of Mars colonists & native Earthers cause unrest as Mars develops it's own culture while at the same time being "regulated" by outside influences, would such pressure from the individual source of the colonists drive them into revolution against Earth as they grow independently from us, perhaps seeing us as some kind of tyrannical ruler/dictator preventing them from growing the way they have begun to cultivate for themselves?

[Horza2002]

I find it hard to believe that if a Mars colony was formed, that Earth would essentially cut itself of from them. There would have to have been a reason why Mars was colinised in the first place (maybe to mine deposits) and so there would be areason to keep in contact with them.

[Mr Skeptic]

Well odds are that Mars would be colonized by a country, probably the US, as some form of investment or enhancement of power. To do this, we would at first spend a lot of resources on them, and perhaps later demand somewhat of them. In the first case, us earthlings might get jealous of all the money going to our extraterrestrial colonies. In the second case, the space faring folks might resent the control or demands placed on them. We've made colonies before, and they tend to seek independence from their mother country.