There’s a common misconception that Isaac Asimov’s Foundation saga is based on the Roman empire.
It’s not an unreasonable assumption. Asimov was inspired to write Foundation while reading Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Gibbon was a rather inaccurate historian. Mid 18th century society didn’t have very much knowledge of Rome. I’m told a lot of the “history” is invention.
And Gibbon wasn’t really interested in the Roman Empire. He was interested in the emerging British empire. And in justifying British colonialism.
Gibbon uses Roman history to construct an idea. That civilisations develop. And that England was justified in colonising “less developed” peoples because it was bringing them up to a higher level of development.
When you hear terms like “developed world” and “developing world” today, Gibbon’s history played a large part in creating those ideas.
Asimov wasn’t just inspired by Gibbon to write about Rome. He was inspired to write about how empires rise and fall, and how a new kind of civilisation might rise to replace empire.
Asimov’s Galactic Empire bears far more resemblance to the British empire than to Rome. A bloated technocracy, a figurehead “emperor”, and a far flung empire that was in fast collapse when Asimov was writing.
And the Foundation, a colony of the Galactic Empire, is identical in many ways to a former British colony. That went on to be pretty big in the world, so I’m told.
More in the new essay on the Science Fiction channel
Damien Walter 