Space Colonization

Why couldn't a country put a colony in space and say, "This is our colony. Respect it the way you would our land on Earth"?

It's not like going into space would suddenly turn all civilized countries into war-mongering barbarians who refuse to be peaceful. Let's say that relations between countries are the same 100 years in the future as they are now - if Japan and the US both made two colonies in space, would they fight? Would there be any sort of conflict? What if Germany and France and England also made colonies? Would anything change? Would Germany suddenly decide to be a giant douchebag and attack England's colonies?

And what makes it so bad if all those space colonies become independent? It's perfectly logical that they should i mean, ever since humans became too populous on this side of the valley, we've sent others to the other side, at which point they decided that they weren't "the people on this side of the valley" any more. And really, there's a fine tradition of imperialism in the world, but almost every country in the world now had its own struggle for independence.

And i'm pretty sure the colonies will police themselves. You don't give people enough credit. Hell, even Australia, which was colonized by criminals and the poor doesn't have significantly higher crime than the rest of the world.

We should definitely colonize space, but we don't have the technology, or enough knowledge to do it yet. It would take hundreds, possibly thousands, of years for us to get our asses together, work up the funding, discover new and more efficient ways to get things done, and terraform the planet/moon we were to colonize. That is only if we don't kill ourselves first

Before space, should the neighboring planets like Mars or the moon be first? Or they are considered as space colonization too?

Another argument for new nations:
Like imperial colonies, people in space have different considerations than those on the ground. Laws and policies are decided by people without personal experience.

Lets colonize before some nation on Earth decide to launch all their nukes everywhere!

It's a gundam ideology gone mad.

Soon we'll get to see a afro boy in a gundam and a guy obesessed with red in a red zaku.

I´d say yes, but theres always the danger of accidents out there. So those who want to live in the space should be aware of that.

I remember a couple years ago NASA said that they'd colonize the moon by 2028. obviously it would be a good idea now that we know there's water there, and that we need a new planet to fuck up.

If you can name one colonizationproject that hasn't lead or involved some kind of conflict I'll be happy to hear about it.
It's not a fact that colonization will lead to war, but it probably will. Especially in space since it's a huge step for mankind, the availability of resources here on earth is dwindling, and the situation will probably be severe by the time we have the technology to do this. It's a question about resources and territory. Of course this won't be a problem an first, since there will be to much space for one nation to claim. But as it will go on, more and more nations is going to chase after their piece of the cake.
If there was a way to either evenly divide the place of colonization an it's resources, or the nations were willing to do fully fair trade, there is a chance that it would work, but of course each country will have a self-interest in this as it will be a huge opportunity, and who can blame them? The profit gained from interplanetary colonies will probably be massive.

To summarize: Greed will turn people against each other, that's why.

I got nothing against the concept of extra-earth expansion, but that gravity well is a hell of an obstacle.

I'm going to go with Aeolia Schoenburg's idea....no until we have stopped war...we absolutely cannot bring war into space.......but mainly cause any laiens we would see out there have a very high chance of being far more advanced than us since we have a fairly new civilization and they'd pwn us

if we did it right, sure. No one wants to spread war to space(or pollute the fuck out of another planet), space colonziation isn't inherently bad to me.

The Principality of Zeon will appear if we do... are we ready for that?

With their mass produced loli army of Puru and Puru Two, no, no we're not.

meh they're just some space nazis. by the time they're a threat to us we'll have superior technology, like gundams

If we can manage to pollute a rock in space with little to no gravity, my faith in humanity will plummet even lower than it already has.

i prefer the rock over the earth.

I can see it now. "Attack On North Korea is Actually Fallen Moon Development Debris"
If we ever do it, it needs to be done right and with martial law at every corner cause people are stupid.

huge chunks of asteroids burn up in the earth's atmosphere every day. It would have to be one hell of a ball of trash to make it to earth. Then, even if it does, the ocean covers 78% of the earth's surface. Also colonies would not have food, water, or comfy technology which makes their life easier. This creates a dependancy on earth, and thus, a hard time rebelling. Of course their will be law, but pollution is nothing to worry about when you are on a lifless rock far away from the earth.