Terran Imperialism

Addressing Tatiana Thane, the fiancee of the fugitive rebel leader, Ivar Frederiksen, Imperial High Commissioner Chunderban Desai asks:

"'...what I mainly want to learn, in my clumsy and tentative fashion, is what drives him. What drives all of you? What are the possibilities for compromise? How can Aeneas and the Imperium best struggle out of this mess they have created for each other?'"
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 127.

After a pause, Tatiana invites him to stay for lunch. Desai's attitude goes far beyond mere "diplomacy." Ivar has killed some of his men and could be simply hunted down. Has any real world imperial administrator been so genuinely concerned and compassionate?

Of course, Terran Imperialism is not like earlier terrestrial imperialisms. Except when it goes wrong, as in Sector Alpha Crucis or on Brae, what it offers is minimal taxes, trade rights for those with sufficient capital, which is by no means all, and, most importantly, protection from nuclear bombardment by barbarians or Merseians. This is a light yolk which need not even have been dressed up in the language of Imperialism but that was the Founder's decision.

Manuel's messages to the known galaxy were:

learn from Rome;
peace through strength;
racial equality;
citizenship open to worthy individuals of any species.

By contrast, the dominant Merseian culture is incapable of thinking outside Racial supremacy although a Merseian community on a human planet is loyal to the Emperor, not to the Roidhun. Human beings who work for the Roidhunate are, even if unwittingly, disloyal to their species whereas Avalonian human beings who, together with Avalonian Ythrians, fight against the Empire to keep their planet inside the Domain of Ythri are not disloyal to humanity as such. Will the future offer our descendants such complicated choices?