Read this sentence from the passage: for three or four centuries they have remained upon this small promontory, on which they had settled like a flight of seabirds, without mixing with the marseillaise population, intermarrying, and preserving their original customs and the costume of their mother-country as they have preserved its language. why does the author use the term mother-country rather than homeland or native land, which have very similar denotations in this sentence from the count of monte cristo? mother-country emphasizes the deep emotional connection the people felt to the place from which they came. homeland or native land would have sounded more old-fashioned and less familiar than mother-country. homeland or native land would have had weaker, more negative nuances than mother-country. mother-country emphasizes that many of the members of this small community are biological relatives, as mercédès and fernand are.