Portugal conquered Goa in 1510 -- that's more than a month of travel.
The Netherlands conquering Java in 1619? A lot more than a month.
And these conquests lasted for centuries.
How transportation technologies shaped empires
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Re: How transportation technologies shaped empires
#62“England with its American colonies” as an example of overstretching this limit? Once again, when explaining a historic trend or event in terms of what happened in the US, we forget about the existence of the control case: Canada.
You are right of course but I think Canada is a pretty unique case. Canada exists in huge part because of the american revolution. British-american loyalists have basically founded upper Canada, which is now Ontario, so it makes sense that they were particularly close to the throne and the British homeland and government. French-canada was also just recently conquered and placated by the Quebec Act, but still tried a couple of uprisings during the Patriot wars of 1837-38.
I don't think Canada would've stayed british without the loyalist escaping here, since they made it an inherent part of their identity to not revolt against the british as opposed to the americans they left behind. But agreed, there are too many exceptions in general to the article's point.
Re: How transportation technologies shaped empires
#63“England with its American colonies” as an example of overstretching this limit? Once again, when explaining a historic trend or event in terms of what happened in the US, we forget about the existence of the control case: Canada.
And even more so, re: distance, Australia.
The article contends that the reason why the 'month rule' is in play is because of the logistics of ruling over a local population which will attempt to rebel.
So I think a mitigating factor for US, Canada, Australia was that the local native population was wiped out by old-world diseases, so there was minimal capability for local population to rebel. This is also the major factor of why those nations' population is largely made-up of the descendent of the colonists. Contrast that with Africa, which suffered from similar attempts at colonialism, was much closer to Europe, but because its native population was not susceptible to European diseases (and in fact, the colonists were decimated by native diseases like malaria), Africa today has a tiny number of colonial descendants (around 5 million European descendants out of a population of ~1 billion)
The population of pre-colonized North America was on the order of 60 million (European population was on the order of ~70 million). Had that population been maintained (i.e. not wiped out by old-world diseases), there was zero chance of European powers being able to establish large colonial populations. In that scenario, once the technological advantage was removed (due to trade, for example), I think you would have seen successful native rebellions.
I would say South America also follows this pattern. No chance of the Spanish being able to establish large colonial populations or maintain hold over native South American populations had they been not wiped out by old-world diseases.
Re: How transportation technologies shaped empires
#64Somebody calculate a light month.
30x distance to Voyager
1/50th the distance to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri).
Re: How transportation technologies shaped empires
#65Somebody calculate a light month.
1 light year = ~0.3 parsecs
1 light month = ~0.025 parsecs
Re: How transportation technologies shaped empires
#66Ghengis Khan, Queen Victoria, and Alexander the Great have entered the chat.
Alexander the Great wouldn't count as his empire fractured upon his death almost immediately after his conquests
Re: How transportation technologies shaped empires
#67Human travel? Or information travel?
Re: How transportation technologies shaped empires
#68Somebody calculate a light month.
It’s about 5000 AU.
That means an Earth based space empire could encompass the entire solar system, but the limit of its reach would only extend part way into the Oort Cloud. Beyond this would be a lawless frontier.
Since this is based on the speed of light, it could be the maximum size for any empire in the universe without the use of some kind of FTL technology.
Re: How transportation technologies shaped empires
#69Unrelated to the article's thesis: the use of both colors and numbers in the static map of the Roman Empire is very clever and I wish this technique were used more often.
I don't in general have trouble distinguishing colored areas when they're adjacent to each other. But when they're separated from each other -- as is often the case with a map and its legend -- it becomes a lot more difficult.
Using colors to show extent and numbers to match up with the legend is a great solution to this problem. Take note!
Re: How transportation technologies shaped empires
#70Interesting how geography limited empires before the advent of instant communication. It would be fascinating to see a comparison of the impact on empires when instant communication is possible. What kind of regime change is possible when you can instantly spread propaganda and no longer need Paul Revere riding around telling everyone the British are coming.
Communication obviously plays a big part but I think time to action is probably the better metric. You need to be able to act quicker than your opponent, and if you can't, you need to be able to absorb the damage they can inflict in the mean time whilst still having enough resources to inflict more damage than you sustained when you can eventually act.