When the Aliens Came
Historic First Contacts for Sci-Fi Authors to Draw Upon
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History is Full of the Equivalent of Alien First Contacts and Invasions
Much of modern day science fiction is full of stories about first encounters with aliens. Stories like Independence Day, Battle: Los Angeles, and Star Wars’ Yuuzhan Vong saga describe sudden arrivals and attacks.
Yet our own history shows that when vastly different cultures encountered each other, a wide range of events occurred. Let’s take a look at history and how science fiction creators can take inspiration from the past.
Spanish Conquest of the New World
Theme: Rapid Dominance
The Spanish landed in Mexico in 1519 and quickly gained an understanding of the operational environment. Forming a coalition with native kingdoms that the Aztec Triple Alliance had long oppressed, some three thousand Spaniards with their Indian partners took down the most powerful empire in the New World.
This scenario is a familiar one in science fiction. However, in most alien attack stories, Earth unites against the aliens. What if the aliens found allies against the United States or another regional power? What would the post-conflict environment look like?
French and English Colonies in North America
Themes: Drawn out, multipolar, integration, trade, and conquest
The story of early British and French colonization is not one of Spanish-style conquest. Instead, beyond the major coastal settlements, a new balance was formed. Both the French and British worked to bring the powerful Iroquois Confederacy and other Indian powers into their spheres of influence, while recognizing the Indian nations as independent powers. Meanwhile, traders worked beyond borders, became part of Indian nations, and even had children who had one foot in each world. Mixed children like Joseph Brant, born on the sidelines of Indian society but with a White father, gained influence because of their dual heritages, in time becoming major leaders of Indian powers. Societies interacted in major cities, with the arrival of Indian delegations being major events in New York City and Williamsburg, Virginia. French missionaries taught and traders blended into the Pottawatomi nation, leading them to live in brick houses in the 1840s, with members becoming founding fathers of the state of Kansas. Meanwhile, the British later attempted to establish an independent Indian state to oppose the United States in 1812, and Catholic missionary Father Pierre-Jean De Smet tried to create an Indian autonomous zone as late as the 1860s.
This history could inspire stories involving the long drown out process of cultural exchange. A powerful force could slowly work itself into a new land, with both sides adjusting to a new normal. Sometimes it could be hostile, sometimes multipolar as the aliens try to influence human factions or vice versa, and other times the interaction could be peaceful and even loving.
John Frum
Themes: Alien encounter and benign disinterest, cultural changes
From my “Aliens are Demons” post: A person sees strange people who look like something he has never seen before, with advanced technology including the ability to fly. The person meets up with others who claim to have seen these strange men. All agree that previous ways of thinking cannot explain what they saw. One even claims to have talked to one of the strangers. Soon enough, they adopt new religious beliefs about the strange men, holding that the strangers must be spiritually advanced, if not gods themselves. Within years, a whole established religion is up and running. I am describing a scenario that “aliens are demons” advocates state is proof of the demonic nature of alleged sighted aliens. However, this is what occurred with the Cargo Cults of the Pacific Islands. These faiths were founded by natives who encountered the United States military during World War II.
When the United States military established airfields on remote South Pacific Islands, some islanders who had very limited knowledge of the outside world saw their supposed eternal, ethereal, and spiritually rich jungle demolished. Quickly, planes came along with cargo goods. Some kindhearted military personnel shared various items with the islanders. These events were cosmos-changing for the locals. Once the military left, some islanders wished the cargo would return. Soon, locals reported sightings of a “John Frum” or “John from America.” John supposedly claimed the cargo would return if the islanders would copy what they saw the Americans do. So, some islanders founded cults where they imitated the long gone Americans. Even today these cargo cults exist, competing for power against traditional chieftains, Christian tribes, and secular governments that try to rule the islands on a Western model.
What if the aliens were not interested in us but were here for something else and then left? They could move on, leaving our understanding of the cosmos in shambles. What sects would grow up based on misunderstandings of why the aliens were here? Who would try to do what they think is the aliens’ bidding? What conflicts would grow out between the traditionalists and new cultural forces?
The Closing of Japan
Theme: Resistance and cultural resilience
In 1549, Portuguese missionaries introduced Christianity to Japan. Over the next few decades, Catholic priests from the Iberian Peninsula converted warlords, villages, and then cities to the new faith. However, by the end of the century, Japanese leaders became paranoid that Christian conversion was a plot to make Japan another Spanish colony like the Philippines. As such, Japan implemented a violent expulsion of foreigners and conducted mass executions and persecutions against Christian converts and their descendants. For nearly 300 years, Japan isolated itself from the world to remain independent. Some local Christians became Hidden Christians, hiding their faith in the mainstream culture, slowly losing some understanding of the faith and Europeans.
Imagine a world where first contact was followed by cultural engagement, only for a strong isolationist movement to take over. Persecution could root out alien influence, with some keeping the memory of the aliens alive through myths.
The Opening of Japan
Theme: Adaptation
Nothing lasts forever, and the West’s expansion into Asia came knocking again, this time with much greater firepower. The United States opened up Japan to trade and cultural engagement. However, unlike China, which was divided into spheres of influence and subservience, Japanese leaders realized the world had advanced and it was time to catch up. The Japanese quickly adopted a Western structure of government, Western formal dress, Western music, and Western international engagement while keeping the traditional military-centered honor culture and a government based on the Emperor. Within a few decades, Japan defeated a European power and gained a European-like status when dividing China up after the Boxer Rebellion.
What if aliens came, and we adopted their culture while keeping the rugged individualism of Americanism? How would a combination of both affect the galaxy?
North Sentinel Island
Themes: Outsiders Scared Off
For whatever reason, the natives of North Sentinel Island have hated outsiders. The earliest written records about the island are warnings not to go there and stories of shipwrecked crews fighting for their lives. The British didn’t do anyone favors when they briefly kidnapped a few islanders before releasing the survivors back to the island. Despite a brief friendly encounter involving a film crew sharing coconuts, the islanders remain hostile. To this day, India patrols the island to prevent people from trying to land on it, prosecuting the few who sneak onto the island and survive.
What if a series of first encounters ended so poorly that aliens quarantined Earth? While a few stories have dealt with this idea, none to my knowledge have alien social media stars and missionaries trying to sneak onto a planet.
Modern Day Uncontacted People
Theme: Protected Isolation with Limited Contact
Estimates today state there are at least 100 uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, with more likely in the deep jungles of Africa and Southeast Asia. These people live a Stone Age existence, with brief glimpses of more advanced civilizations around them. Brazil and other governments have programs to preserve the uncontacted tribes, allowing them to live their own lives in a real life form of Star Trek’s non-interventionist Prime Directive.
Star Trek had plenty of episodes dealing with the Prime Directive, only to break the rule each time. However, what about stories of limited academic first encounters or even an alien Jane Goodall?
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Unit Next Time
Next time, I will take a look at John Jacob Astor IV’s 1894 book A Journey in Other Worlds.
As always, please leave a comment with any questions, reviews, thoughts, whatever about Fallen, Risen, Dormition, An Odd Pilgrimage, The Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency or whatever else I have discussed. I promise to reply!
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