Interplanetary colonialism is just around the corner and we
now have a problem because of it. What should we call all these new territories
and scientific bases and new colonial towns and cities?
The British Empire is
famous for spreading itself to almost every corner of the globe. An empire is a
group of colonies that are ruled by a single power, and while Britain itself
has always been quite small in land mass and located far away from many of the
places it has governed, it somehow succeeded in growing the largest empire in
history.
At its height in 1921, this empire had become a refined
worldwide network, ruling approximately one quarter of all the land on Earth.
The nations conquered were linked in trade as well as in politics, and this
lasted for quite a while. While various countries gained their independence
over time, even by 1952 when Queen Elizabeth took the throne, over 70 colonies
still existed in the empire overseas.
When North America was
being colonized many of the names from home were brought with them and applied
to the new lands.
The thirteen colonies were New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia.
They were mostly named after people or places in England, but a few were named after
the Native Americans.
New Hampshire was named for
a county in England,
Hampshire, but both Massachusetts and Connecticut were named
for Native American words. Massachusetts
was named after the Algonquin tribe, Massachusett, which translates to
"people of the great hill." Connecticut
comes from the Native American word Quinnehtukqut, which means "beside the
long tidal river."
The origination of Rhode
Island’s name is a little more complex. In 1524, the
Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano wrote about an island in Narragansett
Bay that resembled the island of Rhodes in Greece. The pilgrims assumed the
island he mentioned was what we know today as Rhode Island and gave it that name.
New York was originally
called New Netherland under the Dutch, but when the British took it over in
1664, they renamed it to honor of King Charles II’s brother, who was the Duke
of York and Albany.
Pennsylvania was named
after the founder of the colony, William Penn. Sylvania means "woods"
in Latin, so Pennsylvania
translates to "Penn’s woods." It is the only colony that was named
after its founder.
New Jersey was simply named
after Jersey, which is an island in the English Channel, and Delaware was named after Sir Thomas West,
who was Lord de la Warr.
The remaining colonies were all named to honor English
royalty. Maryland received its name from Queen Henrietta Maria, known as Queen
Mary, the wife of King Charles I. Virginia was named for the Virgin Queen,
Queen Elizabeth I. Based on Carolous, the Latin equivalent of
"Charles," both North and South Carolina are named for King Charles
I, and Georgia was named after King George II.
So, what do we call the new off world colonies soon to be
built?
Let’s hope we can be a little more original than our ancestors.
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