Re: COLONIAL WEAPONS

>From: KH.Ranitzsch Wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ryan Gill" <rmgill@mindspring.com>
> > >2) Why do you reckon a Dutch colony would be armed to the teeth ?
> >
> > The last big Dutch colony was. The Boers nearly kicked the British
> > off of South Africa. Made the Britsh army change all sorts of
> > tactics, weapons skills and even uniforms.
>
>Oh, I see.
>
>I was thinking more of present-day Dutch from the Netherlands who are
>generally a quite peace-loving folk. Or at most, their colonies in 
>Indonesia
>and the West Indies.
>
>IIRC, the Dutch gave up South Africa quite a long time before the Boer
wars
>(in the Napoleonic era, IIRC).
>
>Greetings
>Karl Heinz

I tend to lean towards the idea that colonists, especially very remote
ones, 
are going to tend to be (RELATIVELY) well-armed, whether it's "legal" or
not 
- it will be a matter of survival if they're to face whatever fauna etc.

their new world may throw at them (I suspect that the reason Boers were
more 
well armed than Dutch in the Netherlands had less to do with the removal
of 
Dutch influence and more to do with Leopards, Lions, Mambas, Cobras,
Cape 
Buffalo, Zulus, etc. - in whichever particular order is fitting).  And
the 
further out the colony, the further removed from home and authority, and
the 
less pervasive the presence of police/army/any sort of Earth-based
presence, 
the more true this will hold.  I may disagree with Scott on which weapon

will be carried, but I am willing to bet we both agree they will be
around.

2B^2

_________________________________________________________________