Re: [HIST??] Culture shock

From: Scott Siebold <gamers@ameritech.net>

> very suppressed none have brought up the biggest issue. Each of
these
> colonies is a frontier to start with. You have various communities
with
> mines, farmland or some other specific item being produced that are
> scattered with little contact between them and no large population
base.

Not necessarily.  Sure, I may claim title to an area the size of
Australia, but that doesn't mean my population is evenly distributed
across that area.  I'll probably have one main town/admin
center/spacesport, and people who don't live *in* that town will
nonetheless live fairly close to it unless there's compelling reason
to be elsewhere.  Why?	Well, how about access to medical help, spare
parts, imported goods, vitamins, etc.  Sure, there may be *some* hardy
souls who wander off into the wilderness to set up their own
homesteads--but not likely to be enough to be militarily significant,
given that you're not on Earth.

Now, there may BE a compelling reason--"the balonium mines are way up
in the mountains", or "we have some religious/social theory we want to
adhere to" or "beefasaurs take a lot of prairie to raise".

And just because you've got 1,000,000 population doesn't mean that
you've got a couple of battalions, although you probably could afford
it.