Red turns Orange
A part of a side show not related to the main RTL timeline but a fun side project. This is a continuing side project not a part of the main RTL timeline and a fun side project and a work in progress
With global warming taking its toll on the Netherlands her people decided to leave the old world and head towards a new world to make their own. In 2100 the start of the “Grote Trek” started and in a period of 40 years, the entire Netherlands went towards the red planet, it would see the establishment of a new state, a new people, and be a key and critical event in human history.
**Mars prior to the Grote Trek**
Prior to the Grote trek, Mars was not the barren planet it once was, it had several large bustling colonies on the surface. Owned by nations, corporations, and other private ventures, these colonies in total numbered some 11 million in population but enjoyed the support of the great powers of earth and the wealthiest corporations of earth. The three major settlements were, Jamestown in the American martian territory, Muskland owned by Space X and a center of their martian efforts, and the Chinese colony of Mao land. The planet-like its namesake had not been a planet full of peace, fights of critical resources like water rights, settlement rights, and key orbital points resulted in skirmishes taking place between the various powers. These often took the form of smaller private companies fighting it out somewhere on the frontier.
With earth becoming less politically stable the nations of the earth their views shifted from space exploration, to once again earthside matters. This left the colonies largely on their own from a political sense, while they from the get-go were designed to be self-sustaining they now lost much of their political backing. The space X colony being the largest and most developed of them all weathered the situation the best mainly due to it being backed by a large corporation. It was thus a world filled with massive city-state-like entities and in between them a wild west in between, it was to this world that the Dutch arrived.
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By 2105 the Dutch exodus had been completed, started in the 2050s, and slowly progressing from there, it had taken some 55 years of constant work, of spending the entire GDP the entire scientific and engineering capacity of a people on a project, to get the 19 million Dutch people towards mars. They had not arrived all at once, before 2105, there were numerous waves, 5 in total, the first wave in 2057, scouted the planet already somewhat settled limited as it was, There they scouted the positions that would be the new home for the Dutch people, they settled upon the Valles Marineris as the main area for settlement. The second wave started in 2070 when after years of construction the first so-called construction fleets and the first small waves of 100,000 colonists, consisting of engineers, scientists, and builders. They arrived in the orbit of where they would build the Kuiper station, a large O’Neil cylinder hub and from there they built a space elevator down to the planet’s surface. These first 100 thousand colonists this first wave these pioneers laid the foundations down of the first cities, colonies of the Dutch settlement of the planet. They laid down the orbital infrastructure and from there moved down with the construction of a space elevator and from there created the layout of what would be the core of the first major city of the Dutch on mars.
The third wave was launched in the 2080s, when the political situation on earth, as well as the climate situation, was reaching a point of no return, it was during this time that the first mass waves of the exodus were started. Since the 2060s large-scale martian colonization vessels were built, not just ships that transported people, but also ships that transported scientific equipment, factories, the most advanced production facilities as well. Entire factories were shipped off as well as resource extraction, storages of the seeds and the genetical codes for many of the animals, the idea was quite simple that only the most priced artifacts, the art of the old masters, and so on would be taken with them towards Mars. everything else would be created a new there for a new future however one thing that was decided that from every city every town in the Netherlands, one brick would be taken that would be placed in every new settlement that would be built by the Dutch from that time onward.
During this period the so-called “Groten Trek” took place between the 80s and up to 95. This was the time during which a majority of the Dutch population would leave towards mars. 15 Years of near-constant flights between earth and mars. In those 15 years, millions would pass through Kuiper station, itself growing into the largest man-made object in history as O’Neill cylinder after cylinder attached itself to it, as the cyclers between earth and Mars brought the millions over, then down to the planet and from there the outlines of the city were build upon. A new city began to rise, as parts of the mariner valley that had been closed off were beginning to be Peraterraformed at the same time they expanded into the valley further, as well as outside of the valley, setting up the transport network between the various colonial settlements inside the main Dutch settlement, and in between the settlements outside of the valley.
As the Dutch were expanding upon Mars back on earth they made the final preparations to leave the planet once and for all. This happened during a time when on earth tensions were heating up and large parts of Eurasia had been set ablaze with proxy conflicts, as well as a civil war within the African Union. During this time the Netherlands was completely abandoned by the Dutch leaving their homeland of over a thousand years behind once and for all. During this phase of the program, the final settlers left and things like more specific equipment were brought over, this included the military know-how and it was said that during this time the last Dutchman set food in the Netherlands, was a man named Klaas Akkerman, it was said he was the last man that left from Schiphol and the man that pushed the button that ended the Netherlands.
Thus a new era for the Dutch began an era that would see the red planet turn orange.
