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Sounds good to me! (I'm gonna' save this!)
The only thing I have to add is that I recall reading an entry somewhere mentioning that, after absorbing the OEU (or whatever the Terra-based polity was called at that time), the 3I was working towards further expansion to rimward, incl the Bootes Cluster. However. those efforts ceased upon the outbreak of the disruption caused by onset of the 1FW-BarracksEmperors-2FW era.
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On Thu, 4/21/16, Kenneth Barns <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [TML] Tech levels during different times
To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
Date: Thursday, April 21, 2016, 9:57 PM
GT:RoF
describes Near Bootes settlement occurring between c.-2150
(Sequoyah, Polyphemus) and c.-1800 (Vantage). However, the
wheels must have come off quickly after the crisis of -1776,
as by -1700 worlds in the Near Bootes Cluster were already
experiencing TL declines and balkanisation.
The map of the Rule of Man in
MT:Ref'sManual seems to suggest that the Rule of Man
allowed the Terran Confederation some quasi-autonomy.
However text sources refer to the Confederation being
"dissolved" upon the establishment of the RoM. I
suspect that if the Near Bootes worlds were colonised from
Terra, which probably _was_ part of the RoM, then they were
part of the RoM too (even if only nominally, even if only
temporarily). On the other hand, MT:S&A refers to
smaller states in Magyar and Alpha Crucis that "were
neither part of the old Confederation nor the Rule of
Man." So maybe you could throw the Near Bootes
Cluster in here too.
The Terran Merc(h)antile Community
(Combine) started to play some sort of governmental role
from about -1700, but its involvement in the Near Bootes
Cluster even at its peak was minimal. ("Close trade
links between ... Mirabilis and Lagash.") Contraction
of the TMC started almost immediately, and by the time of
consolidation into the Old Earth Union, it only included the
worlds between Terra and Forlorn.
Still from GT:RoF, the OEU (and
other interstellar states in the Rim), really only started
looking outwards again in the century between 100-200.
Reference is made to OEU traders visiting worlds a couple of
subsectors away for the first time in 250. And by 300, the
OEU is starting to get involved in the Aslan border zone
(MT:S&A), and the Near Bootes worlds are starting to
send new colonies of their own out into Jardin subsector.
However consolidation into the Bootes League to come a bit
later than this. From this point onwards the Rim worlds
appear to be increasingly prosperous Imperial Client
States. However, T-prime worlds like Jardin (colonised
directly from Terra, 16 parsecs away) remain uncolonised
until as late as 450.
Let's put this together.
If there was any
settlement rimward of the Near Bootes Cluster before 300, it
was in a very minor way and may well have died out. After
that time, there was the technological and economic
potential to engage in large-scale rimward colonisation.
However, the Rim states seem to have had a greater focus on
political and economic empire building than astrographic
expansion: the OEU is clearly a powerhouse politically,
engaging heavy in the affairs of worlds one or two sectors
away, but the persistence of the Dingir League, the Bootes
League, and the Vegan Polity means that states are not
expanding their borders in any significant way. We are
probably looking at "empires" more like the French
and Dutch ones rather than like the Russian and English
ones. Settlements on vacant planets are likely done my
small-scale private or social entities rather than as an
expression of government policy.
Ergo, likely the worlds rimward of
the Near Bootes Cluster remain clear of large-scale
colonisation until the establishment of the Autonomous
Region, if not later.
Similarly, imagine the situation of
the Aslan. You've just developed J1 (TL9). You love
expanding into vacant land, preferably without a fight.
You see vacant worlds in one direction. In the other
direction, you see a group of racially homogenous
"clans" (human splinter states), each of which is
rich and technologically sophisticated (multi-sector
political reach, remember). These clans seem far more
interested in making money off each other (and you), and
don't seem to be overly interested in competing with you
for the vacant worlds to spinward (after all, they have
plenty of vacant worlds to rimward if they were interested
in that). What would you do?
The Terrans were faced with pretty
much the same situation, and pretty much tried the same sort
of thing: expand _away_from the established power, trade,
play for time, maybe we can co-exist after all. The
situation was different in that: a) the Terrans were
astrographically hemmed in, and b) the Ziru Sirka found the
mere presence of independent Terrans (and their invidious
ideas of innovation) an existential threat.
(I
hope other TML'ers don't mind the extensive historic
screeds!)
--Cheers!
Ken
On 21 April 2016 at 05:29,
Phil Pugliese (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
wrote:
This email was sent from yahoo.com which does not allow
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sender's email address (xxxxxx@yahoo.com)
has been replaced with a dummy one. The original message
follows:
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I agree that once the Interstellar Wars started that RimWard
movement ceased.
In fact I believe that in the original CT SolRim supp there
was mention that the Near Bootes cluster was NOT settled
till after the demise of the Rule of Man & hence has
never been part of any Imperium. Then there's the
mention elsewhere that the Autonomous Region incl worlds
that had never joined the 3I. Also, Terra, as part of the
'Old Earth Union' never lost star travel so I can
see rimward movement straight thru the Long Night.
I also can't imagine that the close proximity of
solomani worlds to Kusyu wouldn't be of a very high
concern to the aslan. High enough, I believe, to lead to
major efforts in that direction whenever possible
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