AHC: European Colonial Empires Go Cosmic

[Rishi]

After World War 2, the concept of colonialism was no longer considered socially acceptable by the vast majority of the international community. Because of this, a gradual process of decolonisation occurred throughout the world as European colonial empires reluctantly granted independence to their colonies. Your challenge is to make the European colonial empires expand out into the cosmos. Where the European colonial empires establish their colonies is up to you, just as long as you make at least one European colonial empire establish at least one permanent colony inhabited by humans that exists beyond Earth. The colony (or colonies) can be on Mars, the Moon, under the thick ice of Europa, on an asteroid, in the atmosphere of Venus, in outer space itself, etc. The choice is yours. And no, this isn't ASB. This is utterly possible.

 

[Thisisnotausername]

I guess you might be able to manage a British or French moon base or space station. I feel like a joint project would be more likely and more feasible, though. The kind of space program you need to have a permanent human presence in space requires a lot of resources, and it's more than any but the biggest countries can comfortably bear on their own--there's a reason we got the ESA IOTL instead of individual national programs, and that was for projects that were nowhere near as ambitious as anything you're proposing.

 

[overoceans]

This raises the question as to why space colonies of any sort, European or otherwise, didn't become a thing IOTL.

It's obvious that in real-life, neither the Russians nor the Americans had the resources and/or the desire to build space colonies(otherwise, they'd exist). So, why are Europeans going to be any different?

 

[Rishi]

I guess you might be able to manage a British or French moon base or space station. I feel like a joint project would be more likely and more feasible, though. The kind of space program you need to have a permanent human presence in space requires a lot of resources, and it's more than any but the biggest countries can comfortably bear on their own--there's a reason we got the ESA IOTL instead of individual national programs, and that was for projects that were nowhere near as ambitious as anything you're proposing.

I do think the dying European colonial empires would need some outside help to establish non-terrestrial colonial empires, since Europe itself was shot to hell by the end of World War 2. That's why the United States of America initiated the Marshall Plan to help rebuild Europe (or at least Western Europe). In this alternate timeline of mine, the Americans and the Soviets sign the Treaty Of Amero-Soviet Peaceful Co-Existence In Space. This treaty establishes that Mars is American territory and Venus is Soviet territory (since the Soviets were the first people to land a spacecraft on the surface of Venus), while the Moon is a joint American-Soviet territory (in this timeline, the Soviets planted their flag on the Moon next to the American flag planted by Neil Armstrong). America and her allies (like Britain, France, West Germany, South Korea, Brazil and Japan) build small underground cities on Mars, while the Soviet Union and her allies (like Poland, Hungary, East Germany, North Korea, Nicaragua and China) build small floating cities in the atmosphere of Venus. Furthermore, small cities are built on the surface of the Moon by both America and her allies as well as the Soviet Union and her allies.

 

[Rishi]

It's obvious that in real-life, neither the Russians nor the Americans had the resources and/or the desire to build space colonies(otherwise, they'd exist).

They had the resources, but they didn't have a sense of urgency toward expanding out into the stars.

 

[overoceans]

They had the resources, but they didn't have a sense of urgency toward expanding out into the stars.

So why would Europeans have that sense of urgency?

 

[Jiraiyathegallant]

Maybe if they survive until around the present, technology will exist to make these things cheap enough for a Great Power to pursue. Most of those countries are not big enough to spend what the the US spent in the 60s.

 

[Thisisnotausername]

I do think the dying European colonial empires would need some outside help to establish non-terrestrial colonial empires, since Europe itself was shot to hell by the end of World War 2. That's why the United States of America initiated the Marshall Plan to help rebuild Europe (or at least Western Europe). In this alternate timeline of mine, the Americans and the Soviets sign the Treaty Of Amero-Soviet Peaceful Co-Existence In Space. This treaty establishes that Mars is American territory and Venus is Soviet territory (since the Soviets were the first people to land a spacecraft on the surface of Venus), while the Moon is a joint American-Soviet territory (in this timeline, the Soviets planted their flag on the Moon next to the American flag planted by Neil Armstrong). America and her allies (like Britain, France, West Germany, South Korea, Brazil and Japan) build small underground cities on Mars, while the Soviet Union and her allies (like Poland, Hungary, East Germany, North Korea, Nicaragua and China) build small floating cities in the atmosphere of Venus. Furthermore, small cities are built on the surface of the Moon by both America and her allies as well as the Soviet Union and her allies.

Is this all by the present day? And if so, what on Earth kind of POD do you have to justify things moving so much faster and further than IOTL?

 

[djf64360]

Britain and France could do a space program. France has the French Guyana launch place. Its impossible for the Soviets, or any human to colonize Venus though. Talk about going from the freezer to the frying pan.

I think the reality we'll see soon with SpaceX's Mars program starting to gain momentum, is that colonizing our barren and inhospitable solar system will be an expensive and dangerous chore in practice and life on interplanetary colonies will be a mix of Arctic research stations and oil rigs. Mars can be terraformed, but Musk's plan of nuking the ice caps to make oceans has the obvious flaw of Chernobyling the water supply people will be drinking and farming with. The rest probably can't be terraformed and won't be that much fun to live in a cramped Moonbase or Jovian moonbase. Then there's the fact his ships keep exploding.

I think even if space programs had followed the early optimism more, the reality of how crappy the rest of the solar system is would become apparent to whatever intrepid British space colonists or French or cosmonaut or astronaut tried it in an ATL.

 

[Rishi]

Its impossible for the Soviets, or any human to colonize Venus though.

No, it's not impossible at all to colonise Venus. Words like 'impossible', 'defeat' and 'failure' do not exist in my vocabulary. There's a layer of the Venusian atmosphere which is very similar to Earth's atmosphere. We could build small floating cities in that Earth-like layer of the Venusian atmosphere.

 

[ArtosStark]

No, it's not impossible at all to colonise Venus. Words like 'impossible', 'defeat' and 'failure' do not exist in my vocabulary. There's a layer of the Venusian atmosphere which is very similar to Earth's atmosphere. We could build small floating cities in that Earth-like layer of the Venusian atmosphere.

Definition of impossible​

1a: incapable of being or of occurring

Vocabulary updated!

On a more serious note, my engineering prof used to say “Anything is possible, but not everything is feasible.”

Specifically, it may be theoretically possible for Humans to survive on Venus, with enough work, and assuming our current understanding of the conditions is accurate. That does not mean it is anywhere close to within the limits of our current technology, nor is it assured that such a venture would be in any way worth the effort.

 

[Rishi]

Vocabulary updated!

No, my vocabulary didn't need any update. I know what I said and I meant what I said. It's possible to make floating cities in the Earth-like layer of the Venusian atmosphere.

 

[ArtosStark]

No, my vocabulary didn't need any update. I know what I said and I meant what I said. It's possible to make floating cities in the Earth-like layer of the Venusian atmosphere.

I am aware. At least of the theoretical possibility. I am simply giving you a hard time.

As I said though, the gap between what is possible, maybe, one day, and what we can feasibly accomplish in the near future is considerable.

 

[fockewulf]

I don't know how realistic is my scenario, but let's say the nazis don't come to power. The ATL german government is focused on peace, technological advancement and commerce. The US is still isolationist, minding it's own business, France and Britain are busy spending money with modernizing their respective armed forces and keeping their colonies and each other in check. Uncle Joe is busy with industrialization and purges, while Japan is focused on China.
Germany doesn't want to violate the Versailles Treaty, so instead of a large military, they invest in research and development of missiles, electronics and alternative power sources like nuclear energy amongst other things. In the fifties they send the first man in space and the next decade, the first man on the moon. In the eighties they prepare for capturing and mining asteroids, after that, the sky is the limit.

 

[Rishi]

I don't know how realistic is my scenario, but let's say the nazis don't come to power. The ATL german government is focused on peace, technological advancement and commerce. The US is still isolationist, minding it's own business, France and Britain are busy spending money with modernizing their respective armed forces and keeping their colonies and each other in check. Uncle Joe is busy with industrialization and purges, while Japan is focused on China.
Germany doesn't want to violate the Versailles Treaty, so instead of a large military, they invest in research and development of missiles, electronics and alternative power sources like nuclear energy amongst other things. In the fifties they send the first man in space and the next decade, the first man on the moon. In the eighties they prepare for capturing and mining asteroids, after that, the sky is the limit.

So in your timeline, the 20th century is the German century?

 

[fockewulf]

So in your timeline, the 20th century is the German century?

It might be if they play their cards right and keep the other great powers focused on each other.