Have you read Red Mars by Kim Stanley? The first 100 people to Mars start to do what you suggest: start over with a clean slate without all the historical cruf

Have you read Red Mars by Kim Stanley? The first 100 people to Mars start to do what you suggest: start over with a clean slate without all the historical cruft. And this works at first because most of the first 100 people are scientists, engineers and others of that sort. But after some time there are strong political moves made on Earth from countries that don't want to be left out of Mars. Rich oil shiekhs make large contributions to martian mining efforts as long as certain Muslims can relocate to Mars. Then things turn south pretty quickly.