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Galactic empires are ascience fictionsettingtrope, in which most or all of the habitable planets in the setting'sgalaxy are ruled by a single centralized political entity. Galactic empires most frequently appear in works in the sub-genres ofscience fantasy andspace 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 hisFoundation books is also modeled on theRoman Empire, with the author taking direct inspiration from thehistorical writings ofEdward Gibbon, even to the point of basing someindividual 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-ruledJudea 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 amilitary dictatorship based upon fear and terror, the Empire is an explicitlyvillainous force with linguistic and visual traits directly reminiscent ofNazi Germany. For example, their armored forces known as "stormtroopers" are named analogously to theSturmabteilung (often known as theSA), a paramilitary entity created by theNationalist 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". InAldiss, Brian (ed.).Galactic Empires. Vol. 1.St. Martin's Press. pp. viii–xii.ISBN 978-0-312-31527-6.
• Aldiss, Brian (1979)."Introduction". InAldiss, Brian (ed.).Galactic Empires. Vol. 2.Avon. pp. ix–xi.ISBN 978-0-380-42879-3.
• Kerslake, Patricia (2005)."Galactic Empire". InWestfahl, 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 – viaDePauw University.
• Stableford, Brian (1984)."Galactic Empires". InWingrove, David (ed.).The Science Fiction Source Book. Foreword byBrian W. Aldiss.Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. pp. 40–41.ISBN 978-0-442-29255-3.
• Stableford, Brian;Langford, David (2017)."Galactic Empires". InClute, John;Langford, David;Sleight, Graham (eds.).The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved18 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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