From: m.driussi@genie.com
Subject: (urth) Le Guerre
Date: Mon,  1 Jun 98 15:01:00 GMT

Robert,

Re: the French/English war aftermath.  I'm guessing:

(1) The French (or pseudo-French) initially colonized St. Croix
because St. Anne already had people on it (abos).

(2) As a result, St. Croix became the "urban" planet and St. Anne
became the "rural" planet.  The majority of the French population
lived on St. Croix.

(3) Thus after the war, the new owners of the urban planet needed
"collaboration" with the previous regime to win the peace and secure
the transition.  The few French farmers on rural planet owed their
alligence to the French on St. Croix, so they were covered with the
same blanket of collaboration, and St. Anne is merely flooded with
penal colonists to secure its empty lands with people.  (In fact, do
we have evidence that St. Croix got a lot of settlers from Mrs. B's
ship?  If they had a semi-military mission, maybe it was to build a
base on St. Anne from which military strikes against sisterworld
could be launched?  A sort of "Airstrip One" plan.)

(4) Text tells us that because there was such a labor crisis on St.
Croix after the war, slavery was introduced (just to make it
Louisiana <g>).  This might mean that there were very few initial
English settlers for St. Croix.

So the germs of difference were in place: a former rural planet now
more urbanized and largely "English," where slavery is not allowed; a
former urban planet now decaying (houses are all old, population
down), with French culture and slavery.

I agree with you that the victors (aside from V.R.T., that is) were
not a multinational space team.  (Then again, come to think of it,
"English" might mean "Anglophone" . . . but nah, let's keep this
simple whenever possible.)

Taken at face value, Roy T's Irish eyes and hair, and supposed
"Frenchness by way of the Napoleonic Wars" is a reminder about how
the ethno-national identities shift and blend over time; the
Napoleonic being another case of French versus English (coalition
forces that time); the Irish being a remnant of the Celts who used to
own the whole region being fought over by the French and English.

The loss of the records of the first French expedition, if it wasn't
an accident of war, sure makes it look like the regime had something
to hide from the new comers.

This is my thinking at this time.

=mantis=

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