Timeline for Why doesn't the Guild control CHOAM?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 11, 2012 at 15:17 | comment | added | Beofett | @Marcin I disagree, particularly on being able to dominate a galactic empire without any military strength beyond mercenaries. But again, this belongs in Science Fiction & Fantasy Chat, not clogging up comments. | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 15:14 | comment | added | Marcin | @Beoffet I am making both of those assumptions, but I don't think they are at all unreasonable. | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 15:12 | comment | added | Marcin | @Beoffet I don't see the relevance of the Opium Wars. They were a series of wars to force China to accept Indian opium imports. The support of the British Navy was necessary because the EIC did not control all transport in and out of China, unlike the Guild's power of over everywhere. | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 15:12 | comment | added | Beofett | @Marcin you are assuming external military dominance of every reachable center would not cripple them. You are also assuming that they could achieve complete dominance without any military power, solely through interplanetary commercial dominance (which is significantly different than commercial dominance within a planet, as most planets are capable of being rather self-sufficient). However, we're going beyond what comments should include. If you prefer to continue this discussion, let's take it to Science Fiction & Fantasy Chat. | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 15:09 | comment | added | Marcin | @Beoffet Why would the guild need to defend every centre? As long as they are not crippled, they could re-establish their centres after assuming dominance in the galactic order. | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 15:08 | comment | added | Beofett | Third: At the time of the Opium wars, India was a British colony, and the East India Company had the support of British military, largely because they were well-established as a fundamental component of the British empire's global influence. I believe the fact that the Guild did not already have that pre-existing relationship with the Emperor is sufficient difference to support my analogy (not to mention that the Queen relied on EITC to counter the trading companies of competing nations). | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 15:03 | comment | added | Beofett | First point: No, I don't. It doesn't matter if it is the Emperor or one of the Houses of the Landsraad. Clearly the Harkonnens and Atriedes both had military forces deployed during their stewardships. It's likely the Guild would have won, but there clearly would have been a fight, and therefore a cost. Second: it is possible that they did not, but it seems unlikely. Requiring superluminal transport to every center of Guild activity would be prohibitively costly, and particularly inefficient when transporting bulk materials key to their shipbuilding industry (assuming they built their own). | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 14:56 | comment | added | Marcin | Thirdly, the various Indies Companies (including the East India Company) had their own military forces. They had already conquered India (in all but name) by the time of Victoria. | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 14:55 | comment | added | Marcin | Secondly, what reason is there to think that the Guild had any important facilities within range of subluminal transport? | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 14:54 | comment | added | Marcin | I think this assumes too much: first of all, you assume that the emperor has independent control of Arrakis. If the guild tried to take arrakis, the relevant factors would be the mercenaries the guild could obtain vs the military forces on arrakis. Given that the guild can hire from everywhere, I think that is pretty much a foregone conclusion. | |
| Apr 11, 2012 at 14:51 | history | answered | Beofett | CC BY-SA 3.0 |