Quote:
Originally Posted by Argos
Quote:
Originally Posted by Swift
Without some sort of transportation even close to light speed, I would say the answer is no. Systems might be colonized, and may even get re-visits, but they would be basically independent.
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But the people in charge of the Empire could travel close to c. A thousand light years would be crossed in hours or days, from their POV. It would be possible to govern, although I´m not sure what meaning such a government would have. |
What I meant by not even close to light speed is that relativistic effects wouldn't be significant (for example 0.2 c). So a journey would still take years by their POV. I know 0.9 c is theoretically possible, but maybe it is just not practical.
In such a case, I don't see that there would be a lot of travel between the home world and the colonies and that there would not be much to prevent the colonies from being independent.
However, in my middle situation, where high-sub-light is possible (0.9 c, for example), I agree with you, though I'm still not sure how much control the home world could have.
Look for example at Great Britain and colonial India. IMO, GB kept control by the ability to keep troops in India. Now, if troops could go there for a year or two, and then take a couple of months to return, that is probably a tractable situation for an empire.
But, how does that change if it takes years or decades for the troops to come home? Or what about if it only takes months by their POV, but 200 years have passed back on Earth and their families are all dead.
Some SF writers have proposed situations where that happened (The Forever War), but I'm not convinced they are stable.
Of course, I'm discussing an empire ruled by force. What about one that is held together by other things, such as by trade or cultural similarities? Again, I think it depends on the details of the transportation system. Can you have an empire/alliance held together by trade, if interstellar travel is so expensive and difficult, that it is not economically viable to ship things?
With the near C system, even if the trip is short by the travellers POV, but decades or centuries have passed on the home world, how much cultural interaction could there be? Imagine you left Earth in 1940 for Alpha Centauri and returned in 2007 - the changes in Earth culture during that time might seem greater to the traveller than the change from Earth to AC.