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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Who's interferin'? We're takin' over.''|Capt. James T. Kirk, ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', "A Piece of the Action"}}
You know the typical portrayal of [[The Empire]]. Militaristic, totalitarian, [[Captain Obvious|imperialist]], immensely powerful and massively dysfunctional. The sort of empire that rules over its occupied provinces with an iron fist, blatantly eradicating all sorts of dissent through mass executions, concentration camps, indiscriminate incarcerations, [[Big Brother Is Watching]] and indefinite detentions.
Except ''these''. Following the concept of a soft power, this sort of empire that doesn't need to rule through its military; to [[Orwellian Editor|remove]] and [[Orwellian Retcon|rewrite]] facts; to [[Doublethink|believe a contradiction]]; or [[Newspeak|destroy the vocabulary]], although it certainly ''can'', and even then, more subtly. No, a
In more extreme cases, their cultural beliefs, values and perceptions influenced, manipulated and dominated the societies of a large amount of other province-dimensions; imposed as the societal norm, their culture is perceived as a universally valid ideology and status quo beneficial to all of society, symbolized by their language being one of the most commonly spoken in The Verse. An
Whenever the
For sceptics that dislike the title, "Hegemony" is an indirect form of imperial dominance where the hegemon (leader state) rules subordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. Although a
Also counts as a [[Meaningful Name]] - ''hegemony'' is Greek for "leadership/rule".
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Crest of the Stars]]'', the Humankind Empire Abh and the Alliance both practice largely differing methods for this trope. Needless to say, the results aren't pretty.
* In ''[[
==
* In the [[Star Wars]] [[Expanded Universe]] when Jagged Fel becomes Emperor of the Imperial Remnants he launches the "Victory Without War" campaign expanding through aid to planets ruined by the most recent galactic war. It continues until his grandson's reign when the Sith pull a coup.
== Film ==
*[[The Godfather]]: The Corleone family is a traditional Italian network of kinship politics. The fact that it is also a criminal organization is not really the most interesting thing about it, as the nastiest parts of their income [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|are kept in the background.]]
== Literature ==
* The Star Empire of Manticore in the later ''[[
**The Solarian League is in many ways a [[Vestigial Empire]]. It's military is mainly good for providing muscle for "Transtellers", that is [[Mega Corp|megacorps]] which resemble crime syndicates and make their profit by sucking frontier worlds until they are ruined. Which is [[Stupid Evil|hardly a concept Adam Smith would have approved]] and certainly not the manner of more refined Mantie merchants(who would at least want to continue trading with something more then a desert) any more then having a [[Cannon Fodder|big hulking fleet of targets]] is what Manties would consider to be sound naval tactics. Of course the actual transport for their gargantuan companies is provided by Manties who can win the first round of the war just by evacuating their ships and leaving cargo to rot in warehouses. Basically the Solarians are like the Persians before [[Alexander the Great]] came slaughtering his way through. Calling them a Hegemonic Empire would possibly work in some of the core worlds and the richer frontier worlds. In large parts it is just an Empire and not a very classy one.
* ''[[The Culture]]'' engages in covert social engineering missions on other planets and civilizations to help them see the benefits of joining the Culture.
* Ankh-Morpork on the [[Discworld]] is one of these. It used to be the more traditional type of Empire, but this way was more sustainable. The city-state only directly controls a small portion of land, but its economic influence throughout the continent is almost limitless, and its production is so great no one dares invade for fear of being deprived of the very tools needed for invasion. It's also the center of all information trade, giving unequaled political clout in the region.
* The ''[[Foundation]]'' was supposed to create one following the fall of the Galactic Empire by using their [[Lost Technology|preserved knowledge of advanced technology]] as leverage against the neighboring systems.
** The first book is all about creating and maintaining such an empire. Leaving aside a temporary [[Outside Context Villain|and extremely unlikely]] setback, the main reason why it is less prominent in later books is that it is so successful a policy (well, polic''ies''
* The nation of Panem in ''[[The Hunger Games (
* In [[Technic History]] The Poliosotechnic League is definitely this. The Terran Empire is more blatantly Imperial as are the Meresians. The Ythrians are definitely this as while they are powerful enough to keep their own turf and er, [[Gunboat Diplomacy|encourage]] their clients, they have a horror of [[Vast Bureaucracy]] which prevents them becoming anything more imperialistic.
== Live Action TV ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The Third Imperium of ''[[
** The Sylean Federation as well, which provided the resources for it to be evolved into the Third Imperium under Emperor Cleon I.
* The Empire of Abel in [[Anima: Beyond Fantasy]] is fueled by this trope, especially before it broke up, letting each nation (which were ''all'' those human in the world of Gaïa) under its control to have its own governments, etc.
== Troper Works ==
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== Video Games ==
* Tamriel in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games one through four, while initially forged with the iron fists of Imperial Legions, is held together only through [[The Chessmaster|massive schemes of the last Emperor]]. It finally falls apart prior to part five.
* The New California Republic in the ''[[Fallout]]'' series is a borderline case. They can and have annexed regions by military force, but they prefer to expand through peaceful settlement and through inviting existing frontier settlements to join them. By the time of ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', it is engaged in a three-way power struggle over control of New Vegas, a very advanced, prosperous, and independent settlement.
* The concept of a Cultural Victory in [[
* [[Paradox Interactive]] titles such as the ''[[
* In ''[[Sword of the Stars]] 2'' the Morrigi see themselves as self-appointed protectors of the "younger races", as such their Confederation incorporates many more species than most of the other factions and players of any faction can annex minor races peacefully.
* In the civilization stage of ''[[Spore]]'', while military cities conquer other cities and religious cities convert them with a giant preaching hologram, economic cities trade with others until they're dependent on them, then buy 'em outright.
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* [[Older Than They Think|The earliest example]] would be the [[wikipedia:Delian League|Delian League]] of city-states c.477 B.C., making this one [[Older Than Feudalism]]. The League was even the [[Trope Namer]], since the position of leadership within the league was referred to as "hegemon". This hegemon, to nobody's surprise, was [[Ancient Greece|Athens]], to the point where the League was often called the Athenian Empire.
* The United States of America is often considered as this by scholars.
**The US had a Hegemonic Empire along the Pacific trade routes long before the twentieth century although there was competition from others, including(banefully)Japan.
* Very much [[Truth in Television]]; third-world countries that were part of European colonial empires qualified as well.
* You could see stuff like this in Feudal Japan, as the vassal states were held together more out of reverence for the Emperor than by any direct control.
* The Republic of Venice.
* The Dutch in the seventeenth century.
* Rome both by it's admirers and it's haters is often unthinkingly thought of as a bureaucratic and military machine with a solid hold on it's territory-like a modern state. In fact in many ways it was more like a giant patronage web with either the Emperor or the Republic as patron over the whole system. A telling feature is the way it was able to maintain control for a long time with a remarkably small investment of manpower and might have done so longer had there been a more effective way to assure the Imperial succession then fighting over it.
* [[Vladimir Putin]]'s policy towards the former Soviet republics is essentially creating one of these as a replacement for the USSR.
* Some of the most effective Empires start as this according to some historical theories. And even while empires they often have what might be called a "penumbra", a sort of sphere of influence in which their culture is either admired or just accepted because everyone else seems to.
** The predilection among many countries to have imitations of Greco-Roman culture such as "democracy", "senates", and so forth is an example of this.
* Related to this is a fairly popular idea in international relations, [[wikipedia:Hegemonic stability theory|hegemonic stability theory]], the gist of which is "hegemonic empires create institutions and stability that often outlive the hegemon, unlike direct empires."
* Even the most severely totalitarian empires will tend to end up being this in practice whatever their actual desire by the sheer limits of geography. The real difference between a "hegemonic empire" and a "just plain empire"(which are kind of ambiguous anyway) is what the actual policy is. The first will try to make a lemonade out of lemons and incorporate natural circumstance into it's policy while the second will try to jackboot the whole system even though everyone but the emperor knows that out in the provinces it is easy to get away with stuff you can't get away with at court.
**Fitzroy Maclean, a british adventurer visiting Stalinist Russia gave descriptions of Moscow worthy of Orwell but when he got out among the tribes, on the frontier, they just lived their grubby old lives the way they had for thousands of years.
*[[The British Empire]] was intentionally this. How much to interfere locally at any given time was often a philosophical controversy(and counterintuitively some of the nastiest stuff, like Cecil Rhodes' designs were done without the central government's direct approval). Local cultures were encouraged and often had political power; as well there was a circle of semi-independent client states around often with armed forces of their own. This was especially the case with "white" countries like Canada and Australia, but even in other places one would have to look at them one by one to say how independent they were. The results of the empire are both admired and disliked depending on who you ask.
* New France in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth century was a tangle of overlapping influences of Indian tribes, French-Canadians, and whomever the King had sent out. There were various power centers including the fur cartels, the Church, the (French) army and so on strung out over the wilderness tied together by the common military interest and desire to make money.
* This was common in the Middle Ages where politics were not so much about territorially cohesive states as about polities of various kinds and strengths in various degrees of dependency. It is still the case in much of the world. In fact the states recognized in the UN often do not reflect the true facts on the ground there.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Organization Index]]
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