The Martian Chronicles

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles tells the story of Mars as it is being colonized by humans from Earth. The colonization of Mars draws many parallels to the colonization of the Americas. In both cases, scouts were sent out to survey the land to see if it was worth settling on. Another similarity is the effect on the natives. In the Americas, especially South America, the natives were wiped out by European disease. The same is true of the Martians; they were massacred by the chicken pox, leaving their population decimated. The final similarity is the manner of the settling. In both cases, the settlers brought their own traditions and culture with them and forced the land to adapt to them, rather than them adapting to the land.