[ExI] "new communities out of the reach of governments"

[John Grigg]

mirco wrote:
Tonga has 100 K inhabitants, so if you take away the old, the children and
the female (not used to conquer, but useful to defend) and the people not
willing or able to combat, you have only a little force that you need to
stand off. Around 1-2k people. It is not need to destroy it, only to
dissuade it from attack. And if the target is hardened, they will back off
after tasting a bit of blood.
>>>

Hey, I grew up in Alaska, and it has a large immigrant Tongan population.
An average Tongan is about twice the size of your standard
non-Tongan/non-Samoan American (or at least it seems like it...)! lol  I
found them to be a friendly people and have a fond memory of eating dinner
at a Tongan friend's house as his wife stuffed me full, almost to the
bursting point, with their native delicacies.  She felt I desperately needed
some fattening up.

The royal family of Tonga has had many shrewd chiefs and kings who knew how
to work with and play off the major powers of their day.  And Tonga even has
a "space program" of sorts due to some spaceways they licensed for satellite
use (for other nations and corporations to rent).  I would say not bad for
such a small nation! lol

If a hostile foreign power invaded Tonga (they don't have oil reserves so
this would be highly unlikely), it would be likely that England and/or the
United States (the U.S. would quickly get involved due to the Mormon Church
leadership strongly lobbying for military involvement, due to so many
Tongans being Mormon, both in the U.S. itself and Tonga) would come to their
aid.

And so my contribution to this post thread is that a tiny nation, whether
centuries old or a very recent construct, needs large and powerful friends
to help ward off trouble from even getting started.  And so a micro-power
would need very capable diplomats to maintain their alliances.

John
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