&gt; <i>The word &#x27;colonize&#x27; evokes thoughts of British, Dutch, Portuguese, etc colonization ~500-200 years ago.</i><p>Maybe in your generation.<p>For me it evokes thoughts of Star Trek, of humanity as a whole expanding to outer space and building habitats in far away places.<p>I really don&#x27;t think people talking about colonizing Mars think about it in terms of colonial times. And this may be a source of various misunderstandings when debating manned space missions.