In Poul Anderson's "Soldier from the Stars," humanoid aliens sell their superior military services to the highest bidder among Terrestrial governments and thus conquer Earth economically.
In Anderson's The Man Who Counts/War Of The Wing-Men, Nicholas van Rijn of the Polesotechnic League irreversibly changes Diomedean history by introducing mass production. (The PL has no non-interference Directive.)
In CS Lewis' Perelandra, the depraved hypersomatic beings really ruling Earth send a scientist controlled by them to Venus to tempt the Mother of its human race to disobey her Creator.
There are probably other examples in sf.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I took a grimly appreciative relish in the ingenious twist Anderson used for how aliens might conquer Earth in "Soldier From the Stars."
Happy New Year! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I don't believe anything like STAR TREK's Prime Directive will be practical in real world FTL travel and interactions with other races/worlds. Because any kind of communications/interactions with other races/worlds is to ipso facto "interfere" with them.
Happy New Year! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
And intelligent races may very well not even need to interact in person with each other to be interfering with each other. The example I thought of from Anderson's works exemplifying that idea being "The Word to Space." Which also happens to be another story by him touching on how human and non-human religions can affect each other.
Ad astra! Sean
Yeah, that offering of mercenary services is a classic way to take over.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Which touches on the old problem of how far you can trust mercenaries. How hard or well will they fight for whoever hired them? How do you prevent foreign hirelings from trying to take over?
But that doesn't mean all mercenaries were treacherous and unreliable. Swiss and Gurkha mercenaries had a well-deserved reputation as ferociously loyal fighters to whoever hired them.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: no, not all mercenaries are unreliable. Most, however, are.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Correct, it's better for a state to rely on its own people for military forces.
Interestingly, the treaties resulting from the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15 limited Switzerland to hiring mercenaries only to France and the Papacy. Making the Papal Swiss Guard a last remnant of that tradition.
Ad astra! Sean
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