Markup View

Author: aurora369

Jun 9th 2013 at 2:43:11 AM

The important bit in that is the amount of travel, communication and information processing technology available. This is what determines governability. The most important bit in that is, perhaps, the timescale of a message traveling from capital to the farthest rim of the empire, and the second most important bit is the timescale of military force traveling from capital to the farthest rim.

The space empire becomes ungovernable when the message travels from capital to colony for years, and military force for tens of years. In this case, the capital will learn of a colony's secession when that colony already has a functional, stable independent government, and a punitive expedition will arrive when a generation of non-imperial-born citizens grows up in the ex-colony. This is what stopped the expansion of the Mongolian Empire and forced Russia to sell Alaska to USA.

Information processing technologies and complexity of government are also important factors, but speed of comm and travel is more important. Federalism or pseudo-federalism (installing viceroys and vicegerents in remote parts of the empire) could expand the range, and such an empire can grow larger than a centralized empire. However, it's more likely to fragment as viceroys declare themselves full royalty.