During the period following the Industrial Revolution the wealthy Western nations of the world began their imperialist expansion, racing to colonize all “unclaimed” territories. All the colonized regions had their own culture and government, but since the West was much stronger, they were conquered. When these areas were finally liberated from years of oppression, their society was left in chaos and much of their culture was destroyed. Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles explores this theme of imperial expansion as applied to the hypothetical situation of humans colonizing the planet Mars. In the novel, the humans flocking to the planet are depicted as reckless beings with no care for their new home. They destroy the ruins, cleanse the earth, and rebuild a comfortable human society on Mars. The parallels between the Earthlings in the novel and the imperialists of today are very obvious, exposing the reader to the idea that humans have colonized the territories in the wrong way. Instead, Bradbury offers the correct solution by stating that the right way to colonize a new land is to preserve and adapt to the land's native culture and become a foreigner, or Martian, themselves. Throughout the novel, Bradbury illustrates numerous accounts of the colonists lacking respect for their new planet, and the reader is able to understand that he holds different cultures in high regard. These examples of clear irreverence for Mars explain to the reader that Earthlings are going about colonization the wrong way and should instead preserve their new home and culture. Early in the novel, Biggs, a member of the fourth expedition, throws his empty beer bottles into a Martian canal and arrogantly remarks, "I baptize you, I baptize... middle of paper... it's preserving the old ones customs and cities of the Martians and starting over as Martians themselves. His message has such great application in the modern world because in Bradbury's time many industrial nations were forgetting that a state could excel without imposing Western ideas civilization simply because they failed to see the achievements of the natives and left many cultures in a state in which they could not be recovered. Bradbury's theme can be about the nations of the past, present and future. Colonizing should not be a game in which you try to rebuild exactly the life you are used to. Instead, settlers should build and improve the nations that once thrived there, without erasing the evidence of the natives' success. Works Cited Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles. New York: Bantam Books, 1950. Print.