The returns are mixed. In "Cosmos", Carl Sagan also drew this parallel, and further stated that (quote)," 'Star Wars' are very unlikely; one side will inevitably be far more advanced than the other. It would be... no contest." (Had to use the '...' to get Carl's half-stop in there.) OTOH, there are the various scenarios created by SF writers from Robert Heinlein to Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Most of which boil down to, "It's very unlikely that anyone has a good defense against a lot of incoming nukes." No matter how advanced the aggressors may be, in "real" science (as opposed to, say, "Independence Day" or the 1953 version of "War Of The Worlds"), if we hit them with an H-bomb, or a lot of H-bombs, they >are< going to notice, and it >will< smart. Which may mean they might just decide to reduce us to an asteroid belt, or something similar, but still it counts as a "mission kill" for them, if their primary objective is to conquer, co-opt, or otherwise colonize us. The point being that, once a civilization reaches the nuclear threshold >and< survives its early Atomic Age (i.e., does not "promptly destroy itself" as Sagan postulated) it almost automatically becomes definable as a "hard" target in terms of conquistador-type strategy. (Not that the Spaniards actually >had< anything definable >as< a "strategy" for the New World.) Which means that conquest would almost have to take the form of either subversion (as in "The Puppet Masters" or the old TV series "The Invaders"), or else a very large "show of force" up front to achieve de facto control by psychological means (as per "V"- which still was a piece of crap). The "gradualist" scenario (as per the Spanish Conquest) only works if the invader can co-opt individual nations and/or groups piecemeal, thus "demolishing" the target world's will and ability to resist by degrees. To do this, they would have to give the groups targeted a good reason to join with them. (Granted, it's seldom difficult to find >somebody< willing to sell out for the right price- or to a philosophy that promises them what they want.) But in any event, the straight "Conquistador" model is probably not a realistic one for such a theoretical "invasion". Cheers. eon

->"Can a small force of Aliens use our differences and conquer our planet state by state by allying with one state first, then allying with other. " Effectively, hasn't that been what religion in general has been doing to us for millennia? The promise of "heavenly beings" (suggesting some kind of heightened, enlightened existence) and entities not of our world (do we need a more clear definition of "alien"?), offering us "their truth", and promising the riches of the universe if we cling to their commandments and teachings, and take up arms against their enemies ("casting out the non-believers", that they conveniently manipulate us into believing are our enemies also, via the whole good-vs-evil guise), and when we die we pass on to a higher plane of existance where all is revealed and we ourselves will be as those "angels". "Hallowed are the Ori!" Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what have you done for me lately? Where's my spaceship? Where's my highly-advanced technologies that can give me the appearance of a magical god over the primitives on the planet I am given to rule over as I see fit? Where's my harem of hot alien b*tches?

Can a small force of Aliens use our differences and conquer our planet state by state by allying with one state first, then allying with other. well if it doesn't occur to them that this is a good idea i'm certain some opportunist would be happy to point it out to the aliens. on a more serious note in every case of a more advanced culture coming into contact with a more primitive culture the primitives have at the least morphed greatly in the direction of the advanced culture if they weren't lost entirely.

Pretty interesting analogy. A lot would depend on the motives of the invading aliens. We're projecting human-type motivations onto alien intelligences, but making the assumption that alien civilizations would have basically the same kind of needs that we as humans do (i.e. living space, food, water, farmland, resources of all types, etc.) it should also be assumed that their motivations would be as varied as those of the myriad explorers of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Some went looking for gold. Some wanted a new life in a new place. Some wanted to "civilize" the natives by converting them to a more European way of life. In all cases, however, the superior technology of the Europeans swept aside any resistance the natives made about being moved off of their land, or being forced into de facto slavery, or anything else they didn't particularly like from these newcomers. The only effective way the natives could have resisted was to develop (at lightning speed) the technologies and industries of the Europeans to produce weaponry on a par with the invaders. Even in instances where the natives acquired European weapons and were able to fight on equal terms for one battle, it was fleeting and extremely temporary success, and eventually, the Industrial Age technology as embodied by the European/Americans simply swept aside the Stone Age technology of the natives.

The 5 main religions talk about talurance and respect for other people's beliefs. preaching to others is in a way Preaching to your self and if someone wants to convert they are free to do so. some Popes and Osama Binladen like to menipulate thins to serve there own wishes for power, fame, and or riches. No one nation fought on the axis side during WW2 except the 3 Axis nations. Every other nation put there defferinces acide and sided with the allies. That was a war between People. Now imagen a war against Aliens that are from another planet. It will be hard for them to Splet us. When the UN and US whent to Somolia in the 1990's one clan was hostile to UN/US personall. after which, all clans, both enemys and freids ethier did nothing agianst the UN/US or attacked the UN/US kicking the Superior forces out that were just trieing to help. Now imagen an ALIEN Race trieing to take our planet for themselvs.

Saying that in WW2, the world was split into two factions, and both factions (allies vs. Axis) were each united in a common goal of destruction and defeat of the enemy is far too simplistic. Each nation fought in that war for its own purposes and its own interests. That may sound cynical, but it's true. Many nations got dragged into the conflict unwillingly, simply because they happened to be in the way of the great powers. I'm aware that all of Latin America eventually joined on the Allied side, but when you look at the dates of their declarations of war against the Axis, they were mainly in 1944 and 1945, when the issue was no longer in doubt. I'm aware that some Latin American nations sent actual combat troops (most notably Mexico and Brazil) but most of them, in my cynical estimation, joined because they wanted to be on the winning side and see if they could score any crumbs from the table. If an alien race came here and tried subjugating us by naked force, undoubtedly we'd resist, perhaps to our own extermination. However, if a truly intelligent race tried more subtle means to conquer and subject us, we'd probably be subjugated easily. Think about it. Many times, after the discovery of the New World, European powers would ally themselves with one Indian tribe against another. They would give the favored tribe guns, metal implements, and trading status with the whites of that paritcular country. That would give an advantage to that particular tribe over their long-time rivals, and rather than realize the duplicity of the whites and share the technology with their native brethren, they use it to wipe them out. When the favored tribe became troublesome, they were wiped out themselves.

Iroquis tribal coalition is the best example for what BasinBictory said. French gave them muskets for fur trade. Iroquis defeated all other tribes for the French in the end using advanced weaponry. They thought they were fighting for themselves. But in the long run their coalition became too dependent on French.

"No one nation fought on the axis side during WW2 except the 3 Axis nations. Every other nation put there defferinces acide and sided with the allies." Not true. Finland was allied to Germany as was Bulgaria. For the most part, Austria willingly acceded to its annexation by the Third Reich and thus, arguably, can be called a willing participant in Germany's future war plans. The Soviets only fought the Germans because Germany invaded them. The Soviets willingly took part in the dismemberment of Poland with Germany.

The biggest result of European-American contact was not controlled by anyone. 90% or more of Americans died from disease. The Spanish wrote often about the death rate of their conquered people. They were concerned about the loss of their workers. If any contact between aliens and people occurred a likely result would be similar: 90-100% of one side or the other or both would die from communicable diseases (remember War of the Worlds? bacteria killed the Martians) Another thing to think about is whether or not an advanced alien invader would want a populated planet or just a planet. The book "Lucifer's Hammer" started when the authors were discussing a likely way that aliens would kill off the human race. Their solution was steering a large asteroid into the planet. Eventually they decided that the asteroid story was interesting without the alien angle and wrote the book that way but if a civilization was capable of travelling between the stars, the wouldn't have to get within range of our technology, just nudge a few large rocks in the asteroid belt out of orbit and wait a few years.

the iroquois were friends of the english. it was the hurons who sided with the french and got pretty much wiped out by the iroquois.