Rust started with ocaml as a base, then evolved in a more C-like direction later on, mainly as a familiarity with the target programmers thing. It wasn't origin

Rust started with ocaml as a base, then evolved in a more C-like direction later on, mainly as a familiarity with the target programmers thing. It wasn't originally envisioned as the systems language that it became, it was much more high level, with a planned GC and everything, then the lifetimes stuff got developed and the contributers at the time pushed it into more and more control in the hands of the programmer.