It's not unusual for succesful hegemons (or colonialists or whatever) to get romantic and swoony about the people they've replaced. Indeed, it often seems like the final mark of conquest. This is a Californian novel about how the last Spanish-Californians in the country were very good at the 'good life' but not practical or, you know, thrusting; so that the best of their young men looks forward to becoming part of the States. There are lots of scenic picnics and dances and flashing eyes on the way.
Gertrude Atherton eloped with the man who developed Atherton, but most of her life was a career writing novels modern, scandalous, fantastical or all three; she was an allegory of the development of California, herself.
Project Gutenberg file #12270, The Doomswoman
So wrote clew in Fiction (19th c.).