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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    OrcBarbarianGirl

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    Default Colonies of receding empires?

    Trying to get a handle on the typical things that happen to an established colony when the empire the colony is attached to falls under its own weight and the colonies become a burden. In this case, the trigger was that the empire tried doing a major project to keep the colony producing for them, and failed dramatically... But the empire was already going away.
    I'm trying to work out the human side of the setting better.
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  2. - Top - End - #2
    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: Colonies of receding empires?

    What tech level? That’s kinda important.

    Usually, either the empire pulls the means of controlling the territory out directly (usually the army and/or military governors) or stops funding said means of control.

    We’ll look at the times when the forces are pulled out first. The effects of this can vary depending on the situation. The loss of the imperial control creates a power vacuum and politics is like nature in that it abhors a vacuum. You’ll find different bodies pop up to take the reins of leadership. Some colonies will have their old forms of government still in place and will step up to regain control of the territory. Essentially the rise of the previous government before the empire. This can occasionally be quite beneficial to the colony. Especially if the empire was pulling resources directly from said colony and not offering anything really useful in return. While violence is almost universal between states. It is possible for a state to grow large enough to defend itself from all rival and be secure in its borders until a huge empire comes around and conquers them. In this situation the empire leaving is often pretty nice.

    That said not every colony still has secure borders and a legitimate governing body to step up when the empire leaves. In this scenario the empire was performing the role of guardian and law. With them gone you’ll see a struggle for dominance. Outside forces will sense weakness and attack. Within the territory different forces will struggle to achieve dominance. Without getting too much into specifics because the board’s rules, depending on culture religious leaders and bureaucrats can come into dominance as a way of trying to form cultural ties and unity. But much much more likely you’re going to see the rise of warlords and kings either home grown or invading.

    Power becomes based on who can keep the most territory safe. This will be done by those who either have money to buy mercenaries or are strong and charismatic enough to fight and lead men. Different plots of territory with the best natural resources become hugely important key points of conflict as the trade that the empire established has probably plummeted so each territory has to provide for themselves now. You’ll see the warlords fight over this land heavily.

    Some of these warlords will likely attempt to legitimize themselves by catering to the dwindling empire. It is surprisingly common for these warrior kings to be given posts and titles by the old empire along with their cultural titles (that are often lineage based). Provided they become big and strong enough to be noticed. It creates the illusion that the empire is still in control, and it provides a reason for people to follow said kings beyond the threat of murder which can only take you so far.

    From here the kings will try to establish their own legal systems and codes. If the empire is still around there will often be conflict between them. The aggressor depends. The empire will want to reclaim lost territory. The kings will want to cast off the illusion of subservience. And courtly politics will be as deadly as ever so you can bet both sides will have their policy change relatively quickly.

    Of course there will be some territories that the old empire will not want to reclaim, probably at the far outskirts of the empire and places that were never that profitable. If they don’t have old government systems to fall back on all the legitimacy and chance for growth provided by the empire giving titles is gone. Expect even more chaos and violence than usual. A lot of the tech brought to the land by the empire to be disregarded or fall out of favor. Cities will shrink as jobs have to go back out to the farms (remember the trade lines have been greatly reduced, all food and production must be internal now). At its worst this situation can be near apocalyptic. Writing may go extinct for hundreds of years. And an era of legends occurs, probably inspired by various strongmen style warlords.

    Now what happens if the empires military is just defunded? Good and bad. The military becomes the law, which it already pretty much was. This is a structure that can be relied upon. But the truth is you can’t really get between heavily armed men and their money. If their military leader is rich and smart he may be able to marshal the army to establish his own kingdom and keep everything afloat. If he is not the army will replace him with someone who will get them their money. This can often lead to raiding either their own territory they’re supposed to be protecting. Or others. If it’s their territory expect the chaos period to occur just with a jump start of violence. If it’s others then we can see this territory start to expand. Or at least attempt to. If they lose things can go very badly indeed. But if they don’t then the military leader can create a strong dynasty and kingdom.

    There is one subset of the attacking others mentality, and that is attacking the empire itself. The rich and charismatic military leader can claim that the empire has fallen into disarray and they need their money as they were promised. This leads to civil war. If the leader is strong, cunning, and ruthless enough they can make themselves emperor and even potentially push back the dwindling of the empire by creating new policies learned from their experience living on the highly conflict filled edge of said empire.

    Or this can cause a chain reaction where every military governor decides they can be emperor if they want and creates a huge period of complete turmoil until one definitively comes out on top or the empire splits apart completely. If it splits expect all the sides to be trying to make themselves stronger than their neighbors by trying to conquer them or other colonies.

    Ok so this whole thing has been a lot of violence and death. And that definitely is what it will look like in the wide view. But it’s important to note, that with the empire gone the resources available to create vast conquering armies will likely go with them. Violence will be frequent but at much smaller scale than before. Especially in the most dilapidated locals. Raiding will be frequent but death on the battlefield will actually be decreased (unless a different huge violent empire comes calling, then our small warlord/king is screwed unless he makes a lot of alliances really fast). Furthermore, with the cities abandoned for the fields we’ll see life expectancy and nutrition increase. Well it will increase after the period of starvation as everyone tries to get farming jobs and figure out what crops to grow.

    And what’s really neat is all of this will be happening all at the same time in different colonies and territories.
    Last edited by Dienekes; 2020-06-12 at 10:09 AM.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Yakk's Avatar

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    Default Re: Colonies of receding empires?

    How is the empire supporting the colony? Food? Security? Manufactured goods?

    Those things become more scarce, and the colony has to produce more of it itself.

    What does the empire ask from the colony? Those may continue to be demanded, and refusing to provide it can lead to the empire getting angry. But if the empire isn't able to project force anymore...

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    Titan in the Playground
     
    Lizardfolk

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    Default Re: Colonies of receding empires?

    Neighbors are going to become more aggressive until the colony can prove itself independently capable of self-defense. In some cases this means the colony is slowly swamped until it dies, others that is stabilizes, and in a rare few the Empire's prohibitions on expansion might be removed and the colony aggressively expands into areas forbidden to it previously.

    Politically there is going to be tension between traditionalists wanting to retain old institutions and relationships, and innovators looking to improve the system or adapt to circumstances. This often takes a long time, centuries or in some places millennia and they then give increasingly symbolic nods to the way things used to be. Maybe they still pretend the Empire is in charge after the Empire itself dies, or claim to be the Emperor of a 20 mile stretch and act like they will eventually take back the center.
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    Aedilred's Avatar

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    Default Re: Colonies of receding empires?

    How long has the colony been in place, and what's the relationship like between the colonists and the locals?

    If it's been there a few hundred years, there will probably have been a large-scale merger of populations. Generations will have grown up not knowing anything but imperial rule. Likewise people who are nominally descendants of colonists will think of the colony as their home and many of them will want to stay even if the empire is pulling out. So the colony's first instinct will probably be to try to keep existing institutions in place as much as possible. This will be difficult without imperial infrastructure and military support, and things may disintegrate, but what you'll end up with will probably look like at least for a while or until a new culture develops, a poor man's imperial successor state with a local flavour.

    If the colonists have only been there a couple of generations, or there is a fairly sharp social divide between locals and colonists, the popular feeling will probably be more along the lines of tearing down the remaining imperial vestiges and trying to return things to how they were before. This will probably not succeed in its entirety.

    The others above have given some decent indications as to the sort of thing that might happen, but the background to the colony will inform what is most likely.
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  6. - Top - End - #6
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: Colonies of receding empires?

    By "established" do you mean "can survive on its own"?

    As that is how i read it.


    There will be a power struggle; either fast and sudden or a slow burn of unrest til a coup. If they are the biggest thing around expect them to be the center of a new empire (in a century if they don't have an outfitted army available).

    Expect anything that can't be manufactured to become a luxury item. It educational books and teachers are available expect a sane and stable ruler to make education and defense top priorities. Even an established colony is still a colony so general living conditions will worsen without trade.

    If access to the motherland is available trade will likely start up. Immigrants will also show up in the droves if life at the colony is perceived as better. A sudden increase in people is a given.

    The reactions of the settlers themselves will vary. Loyalists won't believe thinking it as some mistake. (Depending on distance) the average man might not notice; if Britain (England?) disappeared on America in the 1700s it would of taken months to learn of it and years to get it confirmed by a reliable source.

    On the flip side Rome was in decline for a long time. After it started it was easy to see and still easy to doubt (unless a body of sizable water was in your path you could spend a week and walk to a Still-Roman city/holding) so it was harder to notice in the short term but easier to confirm.

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Flumph

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    Default Re: Colonies of receding empires?

    It also matters why the Empire is falling.

    If it due to complexity issues and being generally overstretched the colonial government may well be more active in people's day to day lives anyway and the transition could just be a series of laws allowing the local governor more autonomy...repeat until defacto independence is reached.

    if for example the the heart of the empire hits a crisis and civil war breaks out, or even power struggles paralyses the place the "colonists" could consider themselves to be a more true heir to the Empire than the original seat.

    Or the imperial heart could be trying to draw in resources to themselves to try and fix their own issues this will of course cause resentment and more likely to lead to the breakdown and warlordisms that have been discussed above.

    There are also tones of questions based on if there are other power centres and how they see things...perhaps a rival who is happy to take the new independent colonies as vassal states....or equally some power centre who wants to kill/crush/absorb those same states and now sees an opportunity.

    Also how much autonomy the colonies had makes a huge difference...if the locals had to have decision making ability due to the separation from the imperial seat then they are much more likely to be able to handle independence....if they had lower autonomy much of the governmental systems would be about local control, saying "no" a lot until you paid them not to, and passing more serious decisions up to the home nation/imperial seat...and thus when they gain independence they tend to still say no a lot to anyone who wants to do anything, arguing with themselves, bumping into the furniture, and when they can get the firepower shoot themselves in the foot. (quote-ish from Douglas Adams last chance to see, chapter Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat-I highly highly recommend but a separate discussion)
    Last edited by sktarq; 2020-06-30 at 01:54 PM.

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