Galactic empire

Galactic empires are a science fiction setting trope, in which most or all of the habitable planets in the setting's galaxy are ruled by a single centralized political entity. Galactic empires most frequently appear in works in the sub-genres of science fantasy and space opera, although they may appear in other sub-genres as well. Works featuring galactic empires may have them as the story's focus, chronicling the empire's growth and/or decline. Alternatively, they may merely serve as a backdrop against which the events of the story play out.

Galactic empires are in many cases consciously modeled on historical Earth-bound empires. Asimov stated explicitly that the Galactic Empire whose fall is depicted in his Foundation books is also modeled on the Roman Empire, with the author taking direct inspiration from the historical writings of Edward Gibbon, even to the point of basing some individual characters on historical figures. Specifically, Pebble in the Sky , which is set on Earth – a poor and backward province of the Galactic Empire – is modeled on Roman-ruled Judea in the 1st century AD. Asimov's Earth – like the historical Judea – is sharply polarized between those who accept the Imperial authority and the fanatic "Zealots" who hatch violent plots of bloody rebellion and are the book's clear villains.^[1]

As a military dictatorship based upon fear and terror, the Empire is an explicitly villainous force with linguistic and visual traits directly reminiscent of Nazi Germany. For example, their armored forces known as "stormtroopers" are named analogously to the Sturmabteilung (often known as the SA), a paramilitary entity created by the Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) in 1920.^[2]

• Ash, Brian, ed. (1977). "Galactic Empires". The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . Harmony Books. pp. 110–115. ISBN 0-517-53174-7. OCLC 2984418.
• Aldiss, Brian (June 1975). "Introduction". In Aldiss, Brian (ed.). Galactic Empires. Vol. 1. St. Martin's Press. pp. viii–xii. ISBN 978-0-312-31527-6.
• Aldiss, Brian (1979). "Introduction". In Aldiss, Brian (ed.). Galactic Empires. Vol. 2. Avon. pp. ix–xi. ISBN 978-0-380-42879-3.
• Kerslake, Patricia (2005). "Galactic Empire". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders . Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 325–327. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.
• Palmer, Christopher (March 1999). "Galactic Empires and the Contemporary Extravaganza: Dan Simmons and Iain M. Banks". Science Fiction Studies . 26 (1): 73–90. ISSN 0091-7729. JSTOR 4240753. Archived from the original on 5 February 2025 – via DePauw University.
• Stableford, Brian (1984). "Galactic Empires". In Wingrove, David (ed.). The Science Fiction Source Book . Foreword by Brian W. Aldiss. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-0-442-29255-3.
• Stableford, Brian; Langford, David (2017). "Galactic Empires". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 18 April 2023.
• Westfahl, Gary (2021). "Galactic Empires". Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO. pp. 309–311. ISBN 978-1-4408-6617-3.

• Fictional governments
• Galactic empires
• Science fiction themes

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