Public Relations in Colonization
A more light-hearted detour on the road of public relations history lies in some of the exaggerations, often not even plausible, that have accompanied what today we would call real-estate promotion.
Erik (The Red) Thorvaldson (right) discovered an uninhabited land of ice and snow in the North Atlantic. Recognizing the power of words, he named it Greenland to attract settlers, whom he led there in 985. The name was indeed misleading, for the ice melts for only a few months a year even in the southern coastal land.
In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh (left) sent glowing reports to England about Roanoke Island off present-day North Carolina. Compared to England, this new land had better soil, bigger trees, and more plentiful harvests, as well as friendly Indians – so he said, as he aimed to persuade other settlers to join this first British colony in North America. But the wildly exaggerated promotion, while successful in attracting settlers and financial backers, didn't match reality. The island was largely swampland, food was scarce, sickness was prevalent, and the colony was abandoned within two years. Virginia led the colonies in both the number of promotional leaflets and in the degree of exaggeration within them.
In another effort to encourage European colonization in the New World, the Spanish explorers and conquistadores (left), sent back to Spain enthusiastic reports of a Fountain of Youth in Florida and of Seven Cities of Gold in Mexico. Though they never found either, their stories helped spur immigration to the Americas.
Later the press in the Eastern United States promoted westward expansion with a glorified view of life on the frontier. The legend of Davy Crockett(right) and later stories about Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill Cody were among the persuasive messages developed to encourage expansion. The Southern Pacific Railroad hired a publicity to promote South California. Land companies hired promoters to attract settlers, and the government hyped the California Gold Rush to foster public opinion for the war against Mexico. In 1880, the Burlington Railroad spent less than $40,000 to promote land sales out West that brought in almost $17 million. The Northern Pacific Railroad, meanwhile, promoted land grants for Civil War veterans along its route in the northern plains and mountain states; it even hired agencies and took out newspaper ads in Germany, Scandinavia and The Netherlands to attract European immigrants.
One can imagine future generations greeted by similar exaggerations about undersea colonies or the first settlements on the moon. Hopefully tomorrow's public relations practitioners will exercise more ethical control than some of their earlier forerunners.
Class Activity: Identify and discuss contemporary parallels to some of these examples of public relations in colonization.