Earth Colonization of Extraterrestrial Planets

In the wake of First Contact, Earth began building fleets of ships to explore the stars using the remarkable Zefram Cochrane CDP-FTL (continuum distortion propulsion, faster-than-light) engines. From roughly 2070 to 2110, a huge push for colonization began when the area around Earth was found to be teeming with Earth-type planets, which the Vulcans called 'Minshara-Class' planets, which humans eventually shortened to M-Class planets.

Alpha Centauri
An earth-like planet was found around this star in the 'green belt' or the habitable zone, slightly larger and less dense than Earth, but with roughly the same amount of water and land (68% water coverage, 32% land coverage, not including polar ice caps). Fourteen companies banded together and licensed the Cochrane engine for exploration and made it to the star within a little over six months with a group of scientists and explorers, twenty in all. They made planetfall on September 17, 2071, the first planetfall for Terrans outside their own solar system in human history.

The expedition was led from the Dauntless with its two drop ships. Captain William Russell, from Illinois became the first human to set foot on an extrasolar planet, followed by Andrew Wilbanks from Ontario, then Theo Innis from Oxford, England. The crew explored for over six hours before setting down for camp in a glenn near a stream, finding the water clean, and the particle spin the same as Earth, which some scientists feared would render all food and water unconsumable for huans.

The next several days, the crew alternated exploring in groups of three in various directions, getting a good general layout of the area, finding a river close by, but no real life other than plants. After planting the flag of the United Earth Space Probe Agency, the humans spent a week using their two rovers mapping, using drones to send data to the mother ship in orbit. In total, the group spent two weeks on the planet, gathering rock and mineral samples, and plant samples before docking with the orbital ship.

The crew transmitted their data home as it was collected, but they knew they would get home before it got there. Returning on April 2, the crew were greeted as heroes by the people of Earth, and a series of new ships were readied within 18 months to send more people to the planet. By 2075, there were 400 Earth people living on the planet permanently, most of them scientists, who then began organizing their settlements on the river Archytas, calling it Tarentum.

The people of Tarentum, knowledgeable of Earth's history and the failures of socialism and communism to address the ills of society, began their experiment in something akin to property-tarianism, a pseudo secular philosophy of the early 21st century that sought to address the shortcomings of true capitalism, with a moral system derived from Christianity. The scientists also voted that their sponsors on Earth only send those with an IQ over 120 and those who were 'attractive' to colonize the planet. The village of Tarentum grew for another ten years, with the downtown looking much like a small English or German village, with flat stone roads, rovers for travel, and a public transport system with a rail-line looping around the town during the mornings and evenings. Farmers found the soil fertile, and brought earth cattle, chickens, goats, deer, dogs, and cats with them to help provide meat and help plowing fields.

By 2080 there were around 1200 people on the planet, and by 2090, there were 9,100 people on Alpha Centauri. Growth continued till 2110, reaching 16,904 people in fourteen villages. The colonial government was formed with people being allowed two terms in any office, no pensions of any kind, no nepotism being allowed, and very minimal taxation, but plenty of emphasis on science, technology, and very traditional ways of life, including large families.

Nova Roma
Nova Roma was found in 2067 and visited in 2071 by the European Space Agency, before being claimed by the Nova Roma Colonization Consortium, which believed in returning to a purer form of governance, advocating the Roman Republic but with some concession to modernity. Some wanted Esperanto as the colonial government's language when they arrived on the planet in 2073, but this was overruled when the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian scientists and explorers agreed to form a government with Classical Latin as their working language. Having brought two linguists with them, they were quickly able to devise Latin terms for their space ships, electricity, and other technology, and soon began teaching and writing in Latin, bringing the once-dead language back to life.

New India
The planet known as New India (Hindi "नया भारत" or Naya Bharat; Sanksrit नव्यअम् भारत or "navyam Bharatam") was discovered by a team of four scientists in New Dehli in November of 2068, and had a team of twelve in an Indian space vessel with a Mark 4 CDP Engine named the "Krishna Singh Rawat," capable of up to 18c, or 18 times the speed of light, making it capable of reaching the planet within 9 light years in just over six months.

Making planetfall in spring of 2069, the scientists soon began exploring the planet, which appeared to be a planet relatively similar to India in climate in a number of places with 15 continents, many of them filled with grasslands, forests, jungles, and few deserts. Their surveys from orbit and on the land found roughly 56.5 million mi2 of land available on the planet, which has more sizable islands than Earth.

Returning to Earth after a month on the planet in the fall of 2069, India officially laid claim to the system as 'New India' and began building ships to begin mining the planet, and to begin sending colonists to the planet. Despite the loss of over 120 million people in World War III, India now had roughly 1.4 billion people and was eager to offload much of their 'excess population' to a new planet, and many Indians were eager to venture forth into a new world.

North Dehli would be the first village founded in August of 2070 near the landing spot of their first exploration voyage, which was marked with the flag of India and would soon become a planetary historic spot. Beginning in winter of 2070, Indians in North Dehli voted on how they wanted to colonize and plan their planet, and decided on making Sanskrit the common language, given the large number of languages in India, and copying the government structure of India with a few innovations from Britain, the United States, and the Confederate States.

The first large-scale colonization ship was that of the Mumbai-class ship IS Mumbai, carrying 500 architects, masons, farmers, scientists, geologists, miners, programmers, doctors, and actual builders to the planet, with a number of animals in tow. By the time the ship reached New India, their supplies were dangerously low, but they managed to land the ship and disassemble it to help form some of the first habitations. The scientists and miners began investigating the planet with the geologists, finding deposits of iron, aluminum, silver, gold, and other metals within a reasonable distance from their settlement.

Focusing on creating habitation, the architects, masons, and builders got to work on building houses, apartments, and businesses, getting a small village built by year's end. Hoping to avoid the congestion of India on Earth, the Indians who chose to settle on New India consciously chose to make all main roads in their village four lanes wide, secondary roads three lanes, and neighborhoods one lane both ways, with everyone getting at least 2000 ft2 of space to themselves, and families getting 2500 ft2 or more. Apartments built during 2070-2072 were all roughly five stories tall, with businesses on the bottom floor. Bakeries, butchers, grocers, bookstores, and other businesses very quickly popped up on New India, with the first book being published on May 9th, 2070 by Taj Raja, who brought his wife Jessica with him from Earth, and wrote the book on settling the new planet, written in English, Hindi, and Sanskrit, with the proceeds designated to go to helping procure funds for the colony itself.

By 2080, India had sent roughly 50,000 persons to the planet, limited only by the expense of warp travel itself. Indian warp drive had reached 30c by 2079, allowing them to increase the number of people willing to undergo the voyage, now that it was much quicker. Villages were popping up all around the planet, with people spreading along the coasts and up the rivers, using advanced solar tiles on their building roofs to put power into the village power plant, which was then drawn over night, and drawn to power their transport vehicles. Indians were eager to begin building their own vehicles and mechanical equipment on the planet, since the cost of importing from Earth was prohibitively expensive, but it would take till 2085 before New India began building its own vehicles and machines for transportation and construction, since the people needed to find time to locate, mine, and process the raw materials to create their own factories.

New China
After the third world war, China was again unified and began looking to the stars as a way of unifying her people with a common purpose to reforge the bonds that had been damaged over the last century of division into north and south, communist and free. In 2069, China found that the Tau Ceti system, a little over 11 light years away, had two habitable planets, and immediately claimed it for themselves.

It took two years for China to build and staff an exploratory vessel, using an engine capable of 19c, named 'Chiang Kai Shek' after the man who helped keep southern China free from the communists.

The second planet was called "新中国" or "xīn zhōng guó," meaning 'New China.' The explorers found the planet had five continents, and eight large islands, and began their surveys and soon claimed the entire system for China. In 2072 a small fleet of ships arrived over the course of a month, with two hundred scientists, architects, doctors, farmers, and other specialists to investigate the feasibility of colonizing the planet. It took two months, but the scientists were impressed with the fertility of the soil, and the utter lack of higher life forms other than fish in the ocean.

Roughly 80 elected to stay on the planet and begin building habitation and roads, while the rest returned to Earth. Once they refueled, they had found that China built another ten ships with slightly faster and more efficient engines, and returned to New China with 592 people and some animals for food. This time, most of the technicians had built in the intervening 10 months barracks for over 1200 people, while they had been clearing forests, planting crops, and getting a small settlement created, calling it New Peking.

Bringing the people to New China, the ships left after a month, crews excited by what they saw, but eager to return home left on the now 5.5 month journey. Excitement in China meant they had more people wanting to leave than they had ships, and a number of people began looking to book passage through a number of companies, some less reputable than others. China's government cracked down on warp drive safety in 2074, and in 2075, the new Yang Tze class colony ship was built to carry 400 colonists at a time, with China building 50 of the ships that year alone, using materials mined from the asteroid belt, and with Chinese beginning the construction of more ships in the New China system to send colony ships back to Earth.

From 2075 to 2080, around 85000 Chinese moved to New China, focusing on farming, construction, and mining. Remarkable advances in mining brought about a huge increase in gold and silver reserves, along with a number of deposits of precious gems of numerous kinds, which encouraged further colonization by the people of China. Given the size of China's population, they sent a large number of people to New China, reaching roughly 185,000 a year by 2110. In 2150, New China had over 14 million people on it, and was responsible for huge advances in mining and mineral discoveries.

Dixie
Roughly 30 light years out, a system with great potential was found by the Confederate States, but it took much longer to arrive than the others. A young Texan, Mark Driscoll came up with the funds with several other sponsors to build and crew a CDP ship, getting to the planet within a little over a year. Knowing his communications would take 30 years to arrive, Driscoll spent roughly a two week stint on the planet, finding it fertile and beautiful, and set out to return home. Returning in 2071, he was greeted as a national hero by his people, and Confederates decided to begin their effort to colonize, making it to the system they began calling Dixie in f