How To Build An Empire (And Why It's Probably A Monarchy) | Worldbuilding

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Worldbuilding Corner

Worldbuilding Corner

Жыл бұрын

Episode 26: Government, Federations, and Empires
In this video we discuss worldbuilding governments, how and why different types are established, and how a state expands to form an empire.
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WORLDBUILDING CORNER: www.worldbuildingcorner.com
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All music, images, and other media used in this video are available for commercial use with Creative Commons licensing, found on www.pixabay.com and www.pexels.com.

Пікірлер: 333
@thegrandwombat8797
@thegrandwombat8797 11 ай бұрын
I'm sad to learn that a Timocracy is not a system in which Tim is in charge
@Duiker36
@Duiker36 11 ай бұрын
It's just something Aristotle made up to make fun of.
@sophiejones3554
@sophiejones3554 11 ай бұрын
😄 it's from the Greek word for "honor", τιμος.
@Xplora213
@Xplora213 10 ай бұрын
It would be better if it was rulership by wizards… specifically, a group of Enchanters 🧙‍♂️
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy 10 ай бұрын
Is your name Tim by any chance?
@henrykkeszenowicz4664
@henrykkeszenowicz4664 10 ай бұрын
Worldbuilding is about creativity! Make a harsh timocracy where the supreme leader is called Tim and is of Tim dynasty! Heck, history wrote it first with Timurid Empire! Tamerlane is basically Timur, thus Tim.
@Xalerdane
@Xalerdane Жыл бұрын
You used the modern definition of ‘tyranny’. During the Bronze Age and Iron Age, Tyrannies were a rather common form of government. The closest modern equivalent, at least in structure, is a dictatorship. While it was rule by a single individual like a monarchy, the Tyrant did not legitimize his rule through claims of divine appointment or descent from a previous ruler. Instead, he either seized it using an army loyal to himself, or convinced the people of the city-state that granting him complete authority over them would help them more than it would hurt them. Since the difference in power between the Tyrant and the people was not as great as it can be today, the Tyrant couldn’t fail to protect and provide for his subjects too much or they and/or the soldiers under his command would off him and replace him with a new Tyrant.
@TheAchilles26
@TheAchilles26 10 ай бұрын
Well, not exactly modern. More the Roman definition, complete with a legal term and concept for tyrannicide
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy 10 ай бұрын
Tyrant actually comes from City of Tyre which first utilised that type of rule /became the most famous example.
@pizzacheeseman2854
@pizzacheeseman2854 10 ай бұрын
The term dictatorship has also evolved as a pejorative or antithesis to democracy over the last 100 years. For example Marx’s use of the word “dictatorship of the proletariat” wasnt supposed to mean anti-democratic.
@MrFredstt
@MrFredstt 10 ай бұрын
@@pizzacheeseman2854 Funny how radically words can change over time. Sometimes in quite a short span
@evanhuizenga8626
@evanhuizenga8626 10 ай бұрын
Based
@slvaltva1392
@slvaltva1392 11 ай бұрын
While it's not common for nomadic societies to quickly evolve into settled ones, it's not too uncommon for them to conquer and take over their settled neighbors and become a part of this settled culture as a new elite. So if one wants to write about a nomadic society changing, it's worth looking into such examples.
@user-cb1rh4wl1w
@user-cb1rh4wl1w 2 ай бұрын
Controlling vital trade routes also counts?
@damonhawkes2057
@damonhawkes2057 Жыл бұрын
History nerd here, just an interesting anecdote: you said democracy usually emerges from other government types, the Celtic and Germanic peoples are an interesting exception to this. There was of course no "standard" political structure in these broad cultural groups, but democratically elected chieftains or councils seem to have been common in these societies, at least during the time of the early roman empire. It is possible that hunter-gatherer tribes that begin settling down do often form democratic (or democratic-adjacent) political structures as a direct evolution of their more loose egalitarian organization. We don't really know of course because this transition almost always happens before writing has been adopted by a society. Anyway it's an interesting thought, as it seems the more democratic tribes in Gaul and Germania slowly became less democratic as temporarily elected warlords started using their prestige and wealth to hold on to power permanently, thus reshaping their society into a Chiefdom. So in that case you do see proto-democracy first, which then morphs into autocracy.
@blkgardner
@blkgardner Жыл бұрын
Republics really didn't scale that well being the modern era: the 19th century or so. Early republics generally took the form of city-states (Rome, the Greek democracies) or leagues of city-states (Dutch republic, Switzerland). Even the USA was a loose federation of smaller republics at its foundation. The pre-modern republics often worked on the "city with an empire" model, in which the capital city was essentially the state, and empire was a mere possession of the city. This was due to pre-modern republics being hesitant to grant voting rights to recently conquered people, or indeed expand the ruling oligarchy at all, as that would just dilute the voting rights of the current voters. The "natural" state of man is probably a tribal democracy of some sort. A stratified society implies at least some level of complexity, so among small bands of hunter-gathers, there are not social classes. However, human societies tend to naturally tend to monarchies, at least in the pre-modern era.
@veeu8781
@veeu8781 11 ай бұрын
Armenius, who famously beat Rome in Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, was killed by those that felt he was getting to powerful (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arminius) and Celtillus, father of Vercingetorix who fought Julius Caesar, was "put to death by his own countrymen for seeking to rule all of Gaul" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vercingetorix#History).
@longiusaescius2537
@longiusaescius2537 7 ай бұрын
Huh
@ChasePhifer-hj3wl
@ChasePhifer-hj3wl 4 ай бұрын
Stasavage has an interesting read along these lines with the book "The decline and rise of democracy"
@thebighurt2495
@thebighurt2495 Жыл бұрын
CGP Grey did a video on why Monarchies exist. They have a consistent chain of change of power, which makes them far more stable than a government type where a new ruler has to be chosen when the last one dies or just loses an election. Granted, that falls apart when the reigning monarch dies "Without Issue." Nothing ever works perfectly as intended.
@tbotalpha8133
@tbotalpha8133 11 ай бұрын
Meanwhile European monarchies were constantly embroiled in succession crises, and civil wars with uppity vassals. Monarchies were absolutely not stable. If anything, European democracies have proven far more stable, simply because the death of a single leader can't plunge the entire country into chaos. Presidents and Prime Ministers can come and go, but the state apparatus does not draw its legitimacy from those leaders. It draws its legitimacy from the proper adherence to the country's constitutional laws, and the consent of the masses. Only when those elements are lost does the state lose legitimacy. Meanwhile a monarchy can lose legitimacy if word gets out that the reigning monarch fell out of the wrong vagina as a baby.
@CantusTropus
@CantusTropus 11 ай бұрын
@@tbotalpha8133 I don't think that's a good example. Those democracies have only been around for a paltry span of time, most of them less than a hundred years (the British have an older system but it's a weird hodge-podge pseudo-democratic system held together by tradition and duct tape). That's nothing at all in historical terms. It's entirely possible that the seeming-superiority of democracy is nothing more than the spirit of one particular age, which will pass away and be forgotten in time (for one thing the very idea that "the consent of the governed" is a source of legitimacy is a relative novelty, a belief sprung from the Enlightenment, and which is far from universal across time and space). Monarchy of one kind or the other is the easiest and simplest form of government, because it is human nature to "listen to the big man" whenever things start to go horribly wrong. Did succession crises cause chaos? Sure. But if monarchy was really that awful, it would never have become popular. If democracy was obviously superior, people would have adopted that instead, but instead the vast majority of history was dominated by monarchies. For that to make sense, monarchy would either have to not be so bad, or else humans would need to be EXTREMELY stupid.
@Illuminat-ve5ue
@Illuminat-ve5ue 11 ай бұрын
@@tbotalpha8133 also, democracy require a certain level of infrastructure or technology to be applied in a sensible scale
@chewxieyang4677
@chewxieyang4677 11 ай бұрын
​@@Illuminat-ve5ue There's a reason why democratic forms of government never made a comeback until the Enlightenment. The concept of Constitutional Limits, Rights of Man, and the like has to emerge to make larger scaled democracies viable.
@tbotalpha8133
@tbotalpha8133 11 ай бұрын
@@CantusTropus Monarchy became "popular" because it's easy for wealthy people to stomp on poor people, and control cultural narratives about who "deserves" to be in control of society. Most humans throughout history acquiesced to monarchs, because they were unaware of any other system of governance, and because they had no power to demand reform even if they did. Humans do not need autocrats - that is the propaganda of those same autocrats, who really don't want the plebs to realise that their elitist, parasitic bullshit is unnecessary. Go look up the concept of "elite panic". It is not human nature to huddle around autocrats in times of crisis. It is human nature to cooperate and self-organise for survival, a behaviour that does *not* require authoritarian control. The idea that humans need strong authorities looming over them has caused far more damage in times of crisis, than the actual crises themselves.
@Egeslean
@Egeslean Жыл бұрын
I came across your '7 metals of fantasy' video earlier today and I binged the entire playlist. I'm invested now.
@Lusa_Iceheart
@Lusa_Iceheart 11 ай бұрын
Literally same thing for me. Same video, showed up in my recommended video list last night too. Must be the youtube algorithm pushed that one specific video to a wider audience. I do like it when the algorithm gets it right like this, I love this sort of content.
@Draeckon
@Draeckon 11 ай бұрын
Same for me, but like a day earlier. I'm making my way through the rest.
@Egeslean
@Egeslean 11 ай бұрын
@@Lusa_Iceheart So many 'recommended' videos are things I do not give a crap about and would never watch, but this was spot on.
@ericaltmann5711
@ericaltmann5711 11 ай бұрын
Me also, about the same time as you guys. Thank you algorithm !
@realkekz
@realkekz 11 ай бұрын
Interesting thing to note also is that the state, settled living, and agriculture are almost always spread by conquest, very seldom does a stateless society choose to become settled, either the environment forces them to, or their neighbors do.
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy 10 ай бұрын
That is absolutely not true. The first settlements were founded by Nomads either as trading posts with other tribes or because they found life easier there with continuously available Water & realisation that more effective to plant than to gather & a realisation that they could build bigger healthier herds more free from predation than they could wandering in the Plains. It was only after these first settlements arose did conflicts between them arise & conquests begin. Also plenty of Tribes still Nomadic looked upon the cities with desire. History is full of Nomad raiding of Cities, then more & more the tribal Chiefs started to imitate the cities norms and began to call themselves Kings even while still Nomadic & also began to initiate hostile takeovers of City-States.
@Edmonton-of2ec
@Edmonton-of2ec 10 ай бұрын
There is no such thing as a stateless society. Like the whole definition of society literally requires some degree of organization, moreso then can be found in small groups of hunter gatherers
@realkekz
@realkekz 10 ай бұрын
@@Edmonton-of2ec the state generally refers to a codified system of law and order designed to rule over a society, a system of governance if you will, if such a thing doesn't exist, or exists only by family to family or clan to clan then it is a stateless society.
@longiusaescius2537
@longiusaescius2537 7 ай бұрын
@realkekz better definition
@delmerputnam1679
@delmerputnam1679 Жыл бұрын
IDK how I'd send if but if you ever need artwork, I'd be open to contribute! Seriously, this is awesome
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
This is something that I would certainly be interested in, I'm no artist myself! Please feel free to email me (worldbuildingcorner@gmail.com) and we can discuss properly :)
@armata_strigoi_0
@armata_strigoi_0 11 ай бұрын
​@@WorldbuildingCorner Might be late to the party, but if not would love to throw my hat in the ring too. Been following along for a while now and you've created lots of things that would be cool to illustrate.
@art-games6230
@art-games6230 11 ай бұрын
@@armata_strigoi_0 have fun!
@kinsisrobertia1755
@kinsisrobertia1755 10 ай бұрын
@@WorldbuildingCorner and I use.y
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy Жыл бұрын
You forgot about Confederacy ...a looser form of Federation often found in stateless Tribal/Inter-Tribal Alliances but also possible in a State Society.
@scottpankonin1068
@scottpankonin1068 11 ай бұрын
AKA League -- City-states and other smaller political units used them extensively.
@11Survivor
@11Survivor 10 ай бұрын
The Swiss be like
@AraliciaMoran
@AraliciaMoran 10 ай бұрын
Confederacy was probably not mentioned because, unlike a federation, it doesn't have sovereignty. At its core, a confederacy is just a series of treaties between sovereign governements; whereas a federal government becomes sovereign over its constituant states.
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy
@KevinWarburton-tv2iy 10 ай бұрын
@@AraliciaMoran That's not quite true. Federal Government only has partial Sovereignty of members of Federation. US States for example exercise sovereignty in most things. That is why they have State Legislatures. A Federation of state is a more ordered, regularised, systemised structure than a Confederacy true, but it's more than just a Treaty Partnership/Alliance.. In theory most Federations are of Equal Partners, same for a Confederacy except that the members are even more so Sovereign than a Federation member. The Federation member might give up 30% of it's Sovereignty while the Confederate State gives up only 10%. Federati surrender responsibilities for Defence, Trade & Foreign Affairs to the Federal Body. The Confederate State generally only surrenders collective Defence to the Confederal Body. It is not so common in Organised Territorial States for Confederacy though it was common in past & known as a League for a bunch of City-States in Greece like the Delian League or later in Germany, the Hanseatic League that though Territorial did not necessarily exercise contiguous Domain between the members. Confederacy more common for Tribal Alliances with a Supreme Chief/Paramount Chief/First of Equals (in theory) with a Council of equal Chiefs in support. Mongols, Iroquois etc.
@11Survivor
@11Survivor 10 ай бұрын
@@AraliciaMoran The Swiss confederation;
@kristinebannerman813
@kristinebannerman813 Жыл бұрын
Have only just found your channel recently. Love to hear an Australian voice among all the others! Thia whole series gives me wonderful ideas and food for thought when it comes to building worlds for my writing. Keep up the great work!
@ChasePhifer-hj3wl
@ChasePhifer-hj3wl 4 ай бұрын
He's got a kiwi counterpart doing the same thing ( hellofutureme )
@worldforger0
@worldforger0 Жыл бұрын
It's a good day whenever WC uploads! I really like how you manage to progress the history of the world by implementing the stuff covered in the rest of the video, it's all seamless.
@wertelka_1
@wertelka_1 11 ай бұрын
WC 💀
@BreadBox.
@BreadBox. Жыл бұрын
Very awesome and helpful. I am LOVING your pronunciations of the various species and races in your setting. Those rolled Rs are something else! 😆
@SurinamElephant
@SurinamElephant Жыл бұрын
The ending really brought it all together! Great video
@Woodledude
@Woodledude 11 ай бұрын
I'm honestly super excited about the Naquil - I mean, just the idea of a civilization whose main strength is an ability to use other sapient species for their own purposes? There's so many layers to that. Granted it's sort of built on a combination of slavery and necromancy, but I mean like... Fictionally speaking, that's pretty neat anyway. Like, are there various subcultures that prioritize different species of host, perhaps? Could there eventually be social castes based on what species your host is, or how healthy they are? What would happen to the culture if they discovered a way to preserve hosts that aren't actively used/infested, for later re-use? If the Naquil aren't as long-lived as a particular host species, could a host be inherited? So many weird, freaky possibilities. Love it.
@Dwaggy
@Dwaggy Жыл бұрын
Wow, just saw this just now, been using your series for guidelines for my 2.0 version of my world and I can't wait to learn more from you. :D
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
Thanks for the positive feedback! Glad the series has been useful so far, stay tuned for more! :)
@Dwaggy
@Dwaggy Жыл бұрын
@@WorldbuildingCorner No problem man, can't wait to learn about warfare, really fun to watch the story of your world unfold!
@shannonswift2233
@shannonswift2233 Жыл бұрын
You always have marvelous videos! I'm in the middle of writing an epic and this is very helpful!
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
Thank you! Glad this series is helpful for you and your project :)
@andresmarrero8666
@andresmarrero8666 Жыл бұрын
I have noticed that ancient governments are rarely just monarchies and usually involve some version of a council which can be anything from a form of democracy to aristocracy. This is because monarchies tend to be rather unstable with people fighting over the chair. More often than not monarchies tend to end up with subpar rulers. It is also impossible for the ruler to be on the ball of everything and so the advice and cooperation of the council is greatly needed and appreciated. Of course the octopi would be on the ball regarding government structures however the forced in trait of parasitism dooms them to fall. They don't have a way to enforce compliance and by taking over people's bodies and viewing others as lesser makes them as an innate threat to every other race and guarantees rebellion that they would be unable to suppress once it gets started. This is why being parasites, dispite having no need to push them into parasitism in the first place, is a death sentence. It makes you everyone's enemy especially if it is used for anything other than death sentences or capital punishment. Without the hosts there isn't much they can do.
@addisonwelsh
@addisonwelsh 11 ай бұрын
Monarchies were typically very stable, that's why the system was used for most of human history. Very rarely did the death of a ruler lead to a succession crisis, in comparison to the times power was transferred smoothly. The claim that monarchies had sub par rulers "more often than not" is flat out wrong. If it was such a terrible system, people would have found something. You are correct about monarchs not holding absolute power. This is where the feudal system came from, monarchs decentralizing rule of the nation by creating lesser noble titles. This was also the purpose of royal councils, though they were typically trusted advisors whom the monarch could delegate important tasks to, rather than some kind of pseudo-senate.
@Historyfan476AD
@Historyfan476AD 10 ай бұрын
Good Monarchs tended to have also a well educated, competent council around them to help them run the state.
@antonywerner1893
@antonywerner1893 9 ай бұрын
​@@addisonwelshthat is also the reason why most monarchys to the human history were Aristocratic Monarchys not Absolut Monarchys. The monach woes in the posion to theoreticly rule over every one but dont had a burocracy or structures to Do so. Be couse of that Absolut monarchys were only small states untill the burocracy evolft to Controll every one.
@longiusaescius2537
@longiusaescius2537 7 ай бұрын
@addisonwelsh so like a cabinet of today instead of a legislature?
@whitehawk4099
@whitehawk4099 6 ай бұрын
@@addisonwelsh I believe you are referring to the second stage of Anacyclosis. While there is cut-through, the structure of governance is notably different between strictly monarchical and more aristocratic regimes.
@zeazonpatch7776
@zeazonpatch7776 4 ай бұрын
Amazing - gotta watch & study more. This truly is interesting in many ways
@CCartman69
@CCartman69 11 ай бұрын
This is such a good series, but my favorite part is seeing the examples in action of the different species evolving, creating trade routes and governments etc. It's so good! How far in the world building timeline are you planning to go for this series? Are we gonna hit steampunk times? Cyberpunk? Going to space?
@kentario1610
@kentario1610 Жыл бұрын
I was so excited to see this posted! I'm feeling inspired to try to sort out my world and will now try to do that! ....but I have to do the races first. That's been on the to do list for ages... I have winged people, humans, and "other", someone who can relate to the winged people's plight of being discriminated against by humans but not nearly as severely (the other are disliked while the winged people are now hunted). I used "elves" as a placeholder but I really should figure it out... Main focus being they can sometimes be mistaken for human... I'll try to do this again! (it's obvious I used this place to think aloud, thank you!)
@iris_drawssandwiches
@iris_drawssandwiches 11 ай бұрын
I am gonna use for my Minecraft world. I'll update when I am done building the first 3
@jeremyarrington9427
@jeremyarrington9427 Жыл бұрын
good video! definitely has given me some thoughts for my goverments.
@Lilas.Duveteux
@Lilas.Duveteux Жыл бұрын
This is a great video. I have decided to try to apply this concept for my worldbuilding...Focusing on just elves, for now. The Drow, or Dark Elves, live in city-state monarchies, in which religion forms both the justification for the government and assures public service. The cultures that had established in-land where never militarily strong, due to being mostly nocturnal and spending most of their time underground. They where mostly agnatic and peaceful. The Eastern Alpine cultures have on the contrary been very war-like, since they were constantly forced to compete for ressources with other cultures, and where very matriarcal. The various cultures expanded mostly through claiming land that nobody else wanted. The two surviving settlements are monarchic city-state, one patriarcal, using a syllabary writing system and mostly peaceful, where priests and patriarchs (clan fathers) hold most of the political power, the king being mainly an overseer. The other is matriarcal, uses an alphabet, most political power is held by dynastic priestesses and is war-like. The Ice Elves on the other hand are stateless, and tend to have magicratic chiefdoms, in which warrior-mages hold most of the power. Clans tend to have patriarcal (men generally know their children are, tend to be monogamy married and holds most important decisions of the household) and matriarcal family (the mother or mother-in-law hold most of the authority, the masculine figure of the household is not the father of the children, and the women feels no pressure to remain chaste) structures interchangeably, depending on the current needs of the clan. They are nomadic or semi-settled. They live in bands and tribes, most of the time, and lord undisputed over alpine tundra. Those who inhabit latitudinal tundra are frequently forced to compete for their ressources, becoming more war-like and brutal to survive this situation. By virtue of inhabiting tundra, which is inhabitable for most humans, they generally are mostly left alone by other cultures, except artic dwarves and the very occasional humans. The extinct forest elves had a variety of social structures, before they where either outcompeted or persecuted out. Still in the temperate to continental climates, the water-elves (inhabiting near rivers and swamps), the forest elves, mostly subdivided into the birch tree culture, the beech tree culture and the pine tree culture. The birch tree culture being a monarchy, but the administration is run democratically. They tended to be a defensive culture, as many fungi on birch trees are edible for humans. The beech tree culture was rather similar to the birch tree one, excepte covering a far smaller geographic area. The pine culture tended to be more in pine dominated areas. All forest-based elven cultures tended to have a similar political structure to the birch-tree culture, but with slight twists to them. Before the Elven Hunts, the birch culture was the most successful one.
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
Very cool! Excellent worldbuilding as usual, I love the state and stateless examples for the elves, takes what already feels 'drow-like' but you've fleshed it out really well!
@Lilas.Duveteux
@Lilas.Duveteux Жыл бұрын
@@WorldbuildingCorner Thanks to your advices !
@ericaltmann5711
@ericaltmann5711 11 ай бұрын
I love to read others ideas, and these ideas are pretty good.
@Lilas.Duveteux
@Lilas.Duveteux 11 ай бұрын
@@ericaltmann5711 Thanks!
@kappakiev9672
@kappakiev9672 11 ай бұрын
Nearly finished binging this playlist and now I really wanna see this setting represented on Tabletop
@craigsurette3438
@craigsurette3438 Жыл бұрын
An excellent counter example of a rather large Empire which was not a Monarchy, would be the Iroquois Confederacy.
@myri_the_weirdo
@myri_the_weirdo Жыл бұрын
I like this video, even if I find your definition of a revolution a bit flawed. Most of the time, revolts were just influent group A taking charge at the place of influent group B. There was rarely a ''class consciousness'' that could have led to a revolution like you described (the only one I'm thinking of rn is Spartacus's revolt) were for let's say a pesant in some ra dom place of greece, being ruled by the monarchy of Thebes or the monarchy of i dunno sparta is basically the same (i know they were city state but you see what I mean) If politics are for an elite (king, priest, classical citizen...) And there's no consciousness of the casts in the population, revolution will only be family one throwing loyals to family two and not the soldiers fighting back against their rulers. Anyway it still is a good video
@eddarby469
@eddarby469 7 ай бұрын
I agree. Most revolutions would be better described as Coups.
@ApexPredator1000
@ApexPredator1000 Жыл бұрын
I thought that Aristocracy had the definition you gave to Oligarchy, and the merit-based rulership was Meritocracy. With Oligarchy being rulership under a council of rulers?
@Xalerdane
@Xalerdane Жыл бұрын
The _literal_ definition of ‘aristocracy’ is ‘rule by the best-suited’, its just that in actual practice it never actually worked that way.
@ApexPredator1000
@ApexPredator1000 Жыл бұрын
@Alex Panciera oh dang, I did not know that. I take it that Meritocracy is a relatively new term that was coined in answer to that then?
@Xalerdane
@Xalerdane Жыл бұрын
@@ApexPredator1000 According to Wikipedia: _Although the concept has existed for centuries, the term "meritocracy" is relatively new. It was first used pejoratively by sociologist Alan Fox in 1956, and then by British politician and sociologist Michael Dunlop Young in his 1958 satirical essay The Rise of the Meritocracy. Young's essay pictured the United Kingdom under the rule of a government favouring intelligence and aptitude (merit) above all else, being the combination of the root of Latin origin "merit" (from "mereō" meaning "earn") and the Ancient Greek suffix "-cracy" (meaning "power", "rule"). The purely Greek word is axiocracy (αξιοκρατία), from axios (αξιος, worthy) + "-cracy" (-κρατία, power). In this book the term had distinctly negative connotations as Young questioned both the legitimacy of the selection process used to become a member of this elite and the outcomes of being ruled by such a narrowly defined group. The essay, written in the first person by a fictional historical narrator in 2034, interweaves history from the politics of pre- and post-war Britain with those of fictional future events in the short (1960 onward) and long term (2020 onward)._
@ApexPredator1000
@ApexPredator1000 Жыл бұрын
@Alex Panciera Ah, yes, that makes sense. Thanks for clearing it up! So aristocracy with its original intent then lines up with crafting ancient civilizations then since that was how they started. Meritocracy for more 'modern' or futuristic society crafting then
@Xalerdane
@Xalerdane Жыл бұрын
@@ApexPredator1000 Ancient Greek thinkers considered Aristocracy as it was intended (no hereditary power, everyone who lead had to earn their position by demonstrably proving their worth) to be superior to Democracy (every citizen, which meant a land-owning man, had a vote regardless of him actually having the brains to exercise his responsibilities properly “the best argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter.”), but it’s corrupted form Oligarchy (a minority of wealthy families consolidate all political power within themselves and are neither accountable to everyone outside their rich asshole club nor interested in the well-being of them) to be even worse than the corrupted form of Democracy, which is Ochlocracy. (mob rule. Best modern example: Trump voters.)
@Varaldar
@Varaldar 11 ай бұрын
This series is amazing I can't believe where it came from. Really highlights how asking one question can spur a thousand others. I feel like the humans who were culturally effected by the zombie fungus would be particularly extreme in their hatred and desired eradication of the octopus body snatchers. I'm imagining real inquisitional savagery
@eddiems
@eddiems Жыл бұрын
Hey! Awesome video! Do you intend to make a video talking about cities, towns and villages? Since you started on a big scale (the universe), I wonder if you’ll get to how to make a city
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
Absolutely! As the series progresses my intention is to 'zoom in'. Most usable projects, either for writing or tabletop games, focus on specific areas of a world, such as cities and villages, and that's ultimately what the end product of worldbuilding (and this series) will be!
@Anatolius1010
@Anatolius1010 Жыл бұрын
Very good video, I think this is the perfect video for looking at the broad strokes of government Would you come back to your government, for a more in-depth look into the relative power-structures behind one of your states? For example, a state like the Golden Horde was often backed by a military aristocracy, who often made or broke the rule of a particular Khan - so there was often a push and pull effect between the khan and the noyans for centralised power
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
Thank you! And definitely, as the series goes on I'd like to 'zoom in' on particular areas, and going further in depth into aspects of government is something I'd like to do in the future :)
@Captain23rdGaming
@Captain23rdGaming 11 ай бұрын
I was actually looking for something like this as im currently planning nations and trying to figure out which how the government system would work out in each nation so i do appreciate you for this magnificent video 😀 im currently world building a Dieselpunk fantasy setting and while there other sentient races that do exist Humans do make the majority of each of the major nations.
@themonsterwithin4000
@themonsterwithin4000 11 ай бұрын
What’s the name of your series?
@Captain23rdGaming
@Captain23rdGaming 11 ай бұрын
@@themonsterwithin4000 i dont have a settled name for it so for now i just call it Code Sino
@themonsterwithin4000
@themonsterwithin4000 11 ай бұрын
@@Captain23rdGaming sounds interesting
@Captain23rdGaming
@Captain23rdGaming 11 ай бұрын
@@themonsterwithin4000 it is indeed but there is more too it than meets the eye while the name is intresting the world itself is even more so the only issue i have right now is settling on a plot but i got characters down aswell as the world, and countries itself
@rachulus5897
@rachulus5897 11 ай бұрын
hey idk if you know this but there is a lot of evidence that non settled societies tended not to live wit their kin groups. in fact non settled groups in africa can live with less than %10 of their groups being kin once they are grown up. as well as this during the bronze age we have evidence of cities existing with large population without states. i dont want to undermine your video as its largely good. but i think this is good to consider in potential future works. thanks for the content :)
@KarlSnarks
@KarlSnarks 10 ай бұрын
Even in the past century, some large scale territories have lived in stateless egalitarian societies for short duration, like Makhnovchina in Ukraine and Revolutionary Catalonia+Aragon. Both were young revolutions though and where not equipped to withstand the power of large states. The Zapatistas in Mexico and Rojava in Northern Syria are a bit smaller examples as well, currently existing. As worldbuilding goes, I'd say Ursula K. LeGuin 's The Dispossessed is an interesting one.
@commandereclipse5373
@commandereclipse5373 10 ай бұрын
Definitely rooting for Kalandria above all else. Peaceful unions of species are so fun.
@ethanjones1770
@ethanjones1770 Жыл бұрын
So funny thing, in my world there is a continent called Kalandria (spelled Kal'andria) which I chose to mean "Shattered Realm" in Elvish. I just wanted to say that cause it was just a funny coincidence
@DavidTShaw
@DavidTShaw 11 ай бұрын
Half a year ago I finished a book called _The Dawn of Everything - A New History of Humanity_ by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Using their fields of anthropology and archelogy, the two wrote a book basically trying to demolish the the orthodoxy of cultural stages that has been around for a couple of centuries or so. Even if you don't agree with their conclusions, they do give wonderful ideas about forms of government and states that is a bit broader than this.
@KarlSnarks
@KarlSnarks 10 ай бұрын
Haven't read it yet but I've heard it's really good, will certainly put it on my non-fiction reading list :)
@scott2452
@scott2452 10 ай бұрын
A rosy view of Stateless societies…I recommend reading War Before Civilisation by Lawrence Keeley to disabuse you of that idea.
@kalleendo7577
@kalleendo7577 Жыл бұрын
Awesome!
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
Thank you!
@sarwanofficial7666
@sarwanofficial7666 Жыл бұрын
Asking everyone for help. For a World Map with scale representing 1 cm = 400 miles, what should I actually draw on the map? Only the Ridgeline of Mountain Ranges equivalent to the Himalayas, Andez and the Alps? I shouldn't be showing hills right? Only the major rivers equivalent to the Nile,Ganges and the Amazon? What about smaller Rivers like Rhone or Thames? Should I draw Only the navigable parts? How many cities should I actually show? Of what sizes or importance? How do I show Forested or Desert regions without colour codes but by symbols without messing up the map?
@joshbegly4207
@joshbegly4207 Ай бұрын
I don't know if you found what you're looking for, but here are my (non-expert) ideas: For ridgelines, definitely define the bigger mountains. You don't usually have to note hills unless they're important somehow, although foothills and larger should be considered for noting. For rivers, I would say that they should be mapped as far up as they could be navigated by a simple log raft. If the river is smaller than that, it is most likely a brook or similar tributary at that point. Bear in mind that most rivers start in mountains as joining snow melt streams and brooks. For cities, it depends on who the map is for. A map for foreigners will most likely only contain cities, towns and villages of note. A good way to figure this is to see if the dwelling contributes to the economy of the land in any way. An isolated town that only produces timber may still be on a map, but a self-contained village that doesn't trade with or is destinationally notable to the rest of the country, most likely won't appear on such maps. On the other hand, a King would definitely want to know as much as he can about his country, and would most likely have all the residences, from grand cities to lowly hovels noted. At the end of the day, the more informed your map user is, the more detailed the map will be. As for the symbols, for forests you can draw small trees loosely based on the ones in the forest. Deserts, you can draw the borders, and then fill it with diagonal hatching. Including the name of the desert helps as well. In conclusion, it really comes down to how much information you think the map needs. The typical use of a map is for navigation by landmarks, so think of what you might need if you were using your map to traverse the land. You most likely don't want to make topographical maps, especially at the scale stated, but noting the shapes and positions that one would be abe to see unassisted (probably about 10-15 miles max) would help with the purpose and believability of your map. Of course, it also depends on who the map is for, like I stated above. Maybe it's a plot point that a certain town isn't marked. I hope this helps! I'm not a professional by any means, but I've spent a lot of time doodling on my homework! Now get out there and draw some maps!
@DarthSupremeus1020
@DarthSupremeus1020 7 ай бұрын
What software do you use to create/edit your fantasy map
@dakotalange2858
@dakotalange2858 Жыл бұрын
Is there a way to combine stratocracy and a meratoctacy
@bjorncorvin4568
@bjorncorvin4568 8 ай бұрын
A good example of a Magocracy is the Royals and Nobles in the Summoner Books as the Royals and Nobles are all powerful Summoners.
@trajonjeter3192
@trajonjeter3192 4 ай бұрын
I hope he uploads again 🤞🏿
@lunaris7235
@lunaris7235 11 ай бұрын
Well, the claim that settled society inevitable/automatically develop states is absolutely wrong and I've actually never seen it in any modern, serious academic anthropological text. (lel, there even was an industrial stateless society in Ukraine 100 years ago :'D) And considering Ukraine, the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in the neolithic/chalcolithic had settlements as large as 30-40k inhabitants without any sign of a state (or even some formalised hierarchy) In fact, most neolithic settled societies seemed to be stateless for 5-7.000 years, with the state only evolving in the bronze age, and as an endogenous factor evolved in only a small fraction of areas with neolithic technology.
@hikarihitomi7706
@hikarihitomi7706 Жыл бұрын
Watch a video on Rules for Rulers, the rules of power.
@namastereciprocity4549
@namastereciprocity4549 10 ай бұрын
is it empire when territory holdings are fully, or not entrigated into the state? Or does it stop being an Empire when all holdings are fully settled by a single ethinic identity?
@kosmaukaszczyk8401
@kosmaukaszczyk8401 3 ай бұрын
there is also clan goverment type and plutocracy ( where people with most money rule)
@TheYashakami
@TheYashakami 11 ай бұрын
Fantastic video quality but you definitely hand waved Puerto Rico and the Philippines
@Tommuli_Haudankaivaja
@Tommuli_Haudankaivaja Жыл бұрын
How was Norford able to appoint people to power based merely on merit? From historical examples, it can be observed that it is very likely for indivituals with considerable wealth and/or power to be appointed to the aristocracy, even if they aren't the most meritorious indivitual available.
@badvillager9487
@badvillager9487 11 ай бұрын
Probably by using the white table
@Tommuli_Haudankaivaja
@Tommuli_Haudankaivaja 11 ай бұрын
@@badvillager9487 Aka magic?
@aquatsar1769
@aquatsar1769 11 ай бұрын
Depends on how you define merit. If historically merit meant "had a lot of money," then rich people were chosen by merit. If we look at the Chinese Imperial bureaucracy, merit meant having enough knowledge to pass specific exams. Although I don't know this world beyond what was presented in this video, perhaps merit for Norfold was based on trade relations and diplomacy: the most meritorious individuals were the ones who brokered the best trade deals or maintained positive relations between the various peoples.
@Tommuli_Haudankaivaja
@Tommuli_Haudankaivaja 11 ай бұрын
@@aquatsar1769 Isn't merit one's ability to do certain things well? For example, Napoléon's army's hierarchy worked on merit. If you were good at leading men and strategies, you got promoted.
@aquatsar1769
@aquatsar1769 11 ай бұрын
I agree, I was trying to ask "what are those certain things they need to do well?" If rulers are appointed or elected because they do things well, what are the things they need to do? If Norford is a trading hub then it would make sense that "making money" is something leaders should do well. If we take a more political leaning to things, forging relationships to gain or maintain power could be considered meritorious (they did "politics" well). The Napoleon example is fine for an army, but it could also work for a government. If it's a full statocracy, then only the military matters but it could be an aristocratic statocracy where the "best" military leaders are rulers (where best could be those who win the most battles, or get the most loot, or have won the most dangerous fights personally, etc.). What is meritorious in the eyes of the people says a lot about their culture, which is why it's difficult for me to answer the question for Norfold. I don't know what their culture is supposed to be like.
@Christian_Bagger
@Christian_Bagger 5 ай бұрын
Another way to think of a state is.. it’s the limbs and skeleton of a nation. A nation is like the soul of a collective people. A nation is how they feel, view, their morals, culture - everything that binds a people together under a common perception. The state is usually a reflection of that people and becomes the nation’s will, if you will.. in a lot more practical way of living, so we don’t kill each other or exploit each other, but so that we can live not only peacefully but in conjunction with one another… but everything created by humans, will fall into degradation and corruption of not properly maintained. However if maintained, it can be a well oiled machine. Bureaucracy is made to make everything runs smoothly and effective. A well established bureaucracy can heightened everything. But as time changes and different kind of people goes in and out, bureaucracy can become janky and bloated… and it’s a perfect time for corruption. And something that may have been a huge boon to one generation of people, well the next may have a different moral compass and may exploit, what was once deemed too appalling to even consider.
@alehaim
@alehaim Жыл бұрын
Important thing about power, generally it is not the people who choose who gets to stayi in power but the political elite.
@jonathanbowers8964
@jonathanbowers8964 2 ай бұрын
One of the few clear examples of an empire forming from a Republic was Rome (although it devolved into a chaotic semi-monarchial system of military tyrants after Augustus Caesar). The US could also be an example of a democratic empire (although the US built on the foundation of the British Constitutional Monarchial social system).
@vx8431
@vx8431 10 ай бұрын
Not all monarchies in history were inherited through being a descendant/relative of the former monarch. Like Macedon for most of it's history had monarchs elected by the military, another example Bohemia and Holy Roman Empire even though the Habsburg dominated both for large periods of times and then the oldest one we know of Parthia where the emperor was selected among the nobles and well the royal family (who usually had the strongest claim and approval by the nobles). Mongols Great Khans like Genghis were elected as well. The mongol empire is an interesting beast since it was not quite settled yet not quite fully nomadic either and they functioned in a very interesting way since they were like a confederacy of clans who formed the backbone of the leaderships who were everything from nomadic warlords to clan leaders becoming Khans who ruled a settled kingdom for the great Khan. The great Khan was an elected theocratic monarch since he was choosen by Tengri the great heaven to rule all of the land and the kurultai (The assembly of Khans only called after a great Khans death this system was also used on a smaller scale for the other Khans) this was one of the reasons they were so fervent in their conquering even after securing the resources they needed to not only live comfortable but extremely wealthy since simply believed that everything that the sky saw belonged to the great Khan and Tengri.
@jotapeguarnieri
@jotapeguarnieri 11 ай бұрын
Why is All Might's profile on the cover? :P
@thelandofthehorns8648
@thelandofthehorns8648 Жыл бұрын
when are you going to put the borders?
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
I actually made a map with them for this video but was unhappy with how it looked and took them out. I felt it made the map too difficult to read, but I'm going to spend some time working with it and come up with a visual style I feel works :)
@thelandofthehorns8648
@thelandofthehorns8648 Жыл бұрын
@@WorldbuildingCorner can I make an Alternate history of locus?
@nickyliu8762
@nickyliu8762 11 ай бұрын
There is a societal organization that could expand to a governmental structure, that I think, is worth mentioning: the caste system. While it is only softcoded in some of our societies until today, it is dominant in the second most powerful civilization on Earth after mankind. The idea of collective societies has been explored in fiction before. But usually to the independent thinking, individualist human audience, hiveminds are usually the bad guys.
@who2273
@who2273 11 ай бұрын
do you think a government that rise on a society is dependent or at least is influenced by its location?
@Canadian_Hobbit
@Canadian_Hobbit 5 ай бұрын
Another common combination is monarchy supported by aristocracy like in early feudal states. This usually develops into monarchy backed by oligarchy over time. But the concept of first among equals is not unheard of in early monarchies. And then there is Rome which was very oligarchal with a bit of a Republican system
@lazulenoc6863
@lazulenoc6863 11 ай бұрын
Lindale would be very disruptive to the status quo if they were to make a sudden attempt to seize power. And the Na'quil are increasingly similar to Daleks.
@alexandrub8786
@alexandrub8786 11 ай бұрын
13:00 yeah,there is something in that characterisation of "no longer an empire" that i don't like.
@zyberkom
@zyberkom 11 ай бұрын
Well... the main government in my worldbuilding project is a nightmare - in a fun and interesting way. It comprises: a Confederation of no less than 5 largely independent Theocracies, each governed in their own way, with dual Monarch and Emperor at the helm; additionally, there are 15 entirely independent feudal systems who can - mostly - overrule anything they please if it is found to be within their remit and not against the dogma of the Theocracy they operate within; Every one of the many systems of rule are also highly complex, and ruled by different principles - including the Confederacy at the centre of it all.
@petersmythe6462
@petersmythe6462 Жыл бұрын
Re democracy - totalitarianism scale? I would argue this misses several important factors. 1. Institutional strength. Some states have very strict norms or laws enforced very effectively. Western countries are examples. Petty corruption, for example, is almost non-existent in such societies whether democratic or not. 2. Scope of government. Not every state performs the same functions. A neoliberal state might have a scope which includes military spending, national security, state security, public safety, tax collection, environmental protection, the court system, private property rights, and enforcement of financial transparency laws. Meanwhile, embedded liberalism or social democracy might well add to that list, regulation and guidance of the market and providing a certain minimum of living standards. A socialist state might add management of the entire economy, deciding what to produce and where it should go, and intensely regulating any markets or private property that exist. A warlord state doesn't care about most of that stuff, just how to get money flowing to their second rate military, and might even raid its own population for cash without providing public services. Keep in mind it is likely that even in a democracy, dictatorial or pay-to-play organizations fill everything not in the state scope. 3. Conscious ideology. Almost every state is ideological. However, in some states, ideology is used as the justification for the government's right to rule.
@ENOCH_INSPIREDJ
@ENOCH_INSPIREDJ Жыл бұрын
How would you bulid a antagonist mysterious esoteric faction who controls mutiple nations which your protagonists must face in their lifetimes? Like a powerful elitists secret society that is ancient and old but also divided and morphs doctrines overtime in their concealment? And they use cults like low level pawns at the end of the day.
@absolutleynotanalien8096
@absolutleynotanalien8096 5 ай бұрын
Why is Allmight before the crown? Because all had the same amount of might? But the chieftains were before the king's so why is he there?
@lukasnelson8328
@lukasnelson8328 5 ай бұрын
You forgot that recently settled peoples usually take a very long time to become a state, unless rushed by foreign intervention. Everyone, even settle peoples, were stateless in the neolithic.
@aleximalmgren5301
@aleximalmgren5301 Жыл бұрын
In my fantasy writing its always monarchy .
@jameshicks1114
@jameshicks1114 11 күн бұрын
The definition of a state does have a formal definition. Article 1 the Montevideo Convention.
@namastereciprocity4549
@namastereciprocity4549 10 ай бұрын
woulnt the early definition of Tyranny be the what you call empire?
@ComfortsSpecter
@ComfortsSpecter Жыл бұрын
This series is pretty good but a lot of that missed the point hard
@Christian_Bagger
@Christian_Bagger 5 ай бұрын
If you’re an emperor, you’re like the kings of king. You’ve vast amount of territory, multiple nations, cultures and countries within one overarching state. If Germany and France United as well as the countries in between… that would be an empire.. however calling yourself an emperor also signaliez to the broader world that may have vast power, but it can also put a target on your back. And holding a huge empire usually have its own major issues, like it’s hard to communicate from border to border, which can fester corruption more easily. Already the difference culture can created tension and division. If you’ve multiple border and they’re also far apart and you get invaded by a collation, fighting in multiple fronts is never adventurous. There’s many thing that can go wrong. One thing that drove Rome to keep expanding was war United the people as well as bringing in bountiful of ressources and opportunity. One of the key cornerstone to Rome also fell were the loss of Egypt where their main food supply for the whole empire came from. So food supply is also something instrumental to think about when thinking countries and country size. And you’d also realize that food is the basis of all economics besides ‘Time itself’
@josephfernandez8015
@josephfernandez8015 11 ай бұрын
Kathochusho Troopers. Would you like to know more? 😊
@natsamtan246
@natsamtan246 11 ай бұрын
You need to work on your Scholars' Cradles. Randomly cutting to yourself making the same hand motions over and over feels distracting. You did seem to do a few different motions in this video as opposed to the past ones so you're getting better.
@pelinalwhitestrake3367
@pelinalwhitestrake3367 Жыл бұрын
Long ago, many nations lived in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Lindale nation attacked.
@LuisBrito-ly1ko
@LuisBrito-ly1ko 11 ай бұрын
Hawaii was not annexed by force by the US. Its monarch was overthrown by the local Anti-Monarchist Faction and gave birth to the Republic of Hawaii in 1894. The US opposed the Hawaii’s request to join the US until McKinley got elected in 1897, when Hawaii resumed negotiations for annexation. It got annexed by means of the Newlands Resolution in 1898, which required a majority vote in both houses. Thus the Annexation of Hawaii was *peaceful*. A way better example would have been the Conquest of the Aztec Empire by Spain or the conquests of the Ottoman Empire. Or to keep it local, the conquest of the Northwest in the Northwest Indian War ( 1785 - 1795 ). Other than that, it’s a good video 👌
@boshkostanisic7205
@boshkostanisic7205 10 ай бұрын
The hawaiian anti-monarchist faction was almost entirely composed of american businessmen and political elites that either moved to hawaii or were born there but of american descent. When the coup happened it was supported by the US secretary of state john foster. President grover cleveland opposed the annexation but other parts of US govt (the senate foreign relations committee) supported it, which is why they were able to annex it after he was out of office. The US definitely did coup the hawaiian monarchy by force, and they didn't implement some democratic society that included native hawaiians or anything, they just implemented a govt that was useful to US business interests and so the US could gain strategic territory in the pacific.
@LuisBrito-ly1ko
@LuisBrito-ly1ko 10 ай бұрын
@@boshkostanisic7205 The ethnicity of the Anti-Monarchist Faction doesn’t equate to the US staging a coup. Especially when only certain sections of the government supported the Hawaiian Requests of joining the union, which means that the role of the US was at most that of an opportunist, and Hawaii re-asked to be annexed when McKinley got elected. That’s like blaming Serbia because a Serbian killed Franz Ferdinand. Not to mention that Cleveland ordered the insurgents to reinstate the Queen but they refused. And even when McKinley was elected, he still found opposition in Congress to the Annexation ( failing twice to ratify it during the first year ). Since those who staged the coup were legally subjects of the Kingdom of Hawaii, they count as Hawaiian too. So, the event is to be seen as an internal civil strife.
@boshkostanisic7205
@boshkostanisic7205 10 ай бұрын
@@LuisBrito-ly1ko I don't care too much about ethnicity or anything I think nationalism is lame, but it's clear that a bunch of wealthy businessmen and political elites were the ones to overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy for their own interests and for the interests of US companies/policy. I'm not blaming the entire US exactly for the coup, like I'm not blaming some guy in new york just working a 9-5, but I am heaping some blame on specific wealthy Americans for the annexation of Hawaii. The people of Hawaii didn't go through some democratic decision-making process to join with the United States, there were no free and fair elections open to all. Instead those at the top did what they wanted for profit and power like they always do. It was an authoritarian and undemocratic move supported by some US elites and done through force (though of course the Hawaiian monarchy was also inherently bad). If Hawaii actually came to a democratic decision to join the US, I would not care at all, but it's clear that did not happen and instead everyday Hawaiians were once again blocked from having a say in their own society (the same can also be said for many americans).
@jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901
@jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901 10 ай бұрын
​@@boshkostanisic7205 it is also known that before the civil war, many US elites wanted to colonise Polynesia, with Mormons and Hawaiian businessmen later committing to those goals, and then even later the Spanish war taking the phillippines, the battleship diplomacy allowing the US access to Japan and buying Alaska ended up fulfilling those goals much later than originally proposed
@DavidGlenn
@DavidGlenn Жыл бұрын
Well in my world things were a little bit complicated. The people in my setting were conquered by a theocratic monarchy when they first set foot in my world. Then when they became free and started their own nation they had a monarchy. However, one ruler became a tyrant, and they overthrew her. The people then formed separate chiefdoms to avoid a repeat. Then they were conquered by an empire. When they broke free they set up a new monarchy Still not sure what type of government my bird species would have
@komreedjr1132
@komreedjr1132 Жыл бұрын
Great video! This was very helpful. Nice that you mentioned The sovereignty of Texas. But some things I want to tell you. I’ve been researching this. You see The thing about states is a monarch can’t properly rule over a large country or empire. So that’s why The country or empire is divided into states. The states sort of act as their own country inside of a country except with limited freedom which Can vary so that one ruler don’t have to rule the whole country by his/her self or their selfs if it’s multiple rules. Since states act almost like a whole Nother country except with limited freedom they have their own capital their own flag and their own military and much more! And governors are Second in command when it comes to their state. This makes states much more interesting. Their freedom can vary a lot! In fact A long time ago The American states had so much freedom they could basically be their own countries and invade other states! Even though they’re all part of the country. So there’s much more political stuff happening in states then you would’ve thought. Also The human colonies unless they come from other planets The major powers on earth would be The United States and China so the colonies would likely be Chinese and American. So the human colonies would probably not be monarchies. Instead they would likely be Either democracy or communism. Also the thing about your cool intelligent alien life is that empires pretty much completely corresponded with there climate. For example The tropical areas in Asia became India The temperature zone in Asia became china The desert zone became the Mongol empire The Mediterranean zone in Europe became the Roman empire and so on. Basically climate unites people through culture. The Roman empire probably failed because of Invaders from the north from a different climate zone. Also another thing is Eurasia is wider than it is tall so it has roughly the same climate types throughout allowing for large empires and cultures to diffuse and develop. But the reason Continents like Africa North and South America did not develop and were conquered by Europeans. It’s because they were longer than they are tall so they pass through many climate zones and are very diverse so that cultures cannot diffuse together like they can in Eurasia. Because of this unfortunately your world may not work. The main continent is taller than it is wide so the climate zones are small and it’s very diverse. As a result the alien life on your planet will not be able to develop and would be conquered by humans that have benefited from a unifying geography as historically happened. Sorry that this was very long.
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
Thanks for the detailed comment! To clarify, because I think there's been some confusion, the humans on Locus do not come from earth, have never evolved on earth, and therefore are not American or Chinese. Locus is a planet in an entirely fictional universe. You're absolutely right about empires being more likely to form successfully across the same latitudes, which is why on Locus the Kathochushian empire was so short lived; it tried unsuccessfully to branch out into another climate band. Also, you're right, a monarchy can rule over a monarchy! This was actually very common throughout history, with kings answering to other kings. In fact, a government can have other types of government above and below it. However, a king ruling underneath another king is not sovereign, even though they are still a monarch.
@komreedjr1132
@komreedjr1132 Жыл бұрын
@@WorldbuildingCorner YW
@komreedjr1132
@komreedjr1132 11 ай бұрын
@@Me-yq1fl your second one wrong. The reason the Europeans even have all that stuff is because of THEIR UNIFYING GEOGRAPHY. And no. There were barely any real societies in America or Africa. Egypt was only able to form only because of the Nile river. Mali was locked to the Sahel which was bigger at the time. The Inca were only able to form because of the Andes mountains with vertical unifying geography. There are meny other examples. Of features that allowed em to exist. Eurasia had a huge amount of empires but Africa and the Americas had very few. Meny of em that you my consider civilizations ain’t actually civilizations at all. They were just tribes. and even the civilizations that did form they ain’t nearly as advanced as Eurasian civilizations.
@thodan467
@thodan467 Жыл бұрын
Can you show me the tribal etc. society where a person could declare himself the "ruler" of the society without support ? Ever heard of Federationized states like swiss, germany, the US? Bands are AFAIK a military etc "organisation" from the holy band of thebes, the calssic tribal war band to hunting bands btw Tyranny was an ancient greek invention
@danielsykes7558
@danielsykes7558 10 ай бұрын
12:50 don't forget the mixed sovereignty of indigenous people this whole time. They have constitutional sovereignty over themselves, but ... History
@wayoutdan8334
@wayoutdan8334 11 ай бұрын
I like this planet.
@scottpankonin1068
@scottpankonin1068 11 ай бұрын
It could be worth looking at Greek political theory what has a good system of explanation on how government transforms through early history. There are three basic types of rule - rule of a single leader (monarchy), of a group or class (aristocracy), or of "the people" as a whole (a polity or republic). Each of these has a degenerate version where the rulers selfishly only look enrich or aggrandize themselves. These versions are tyranny, oligarchy and democracy (ironically, this is the name of degenerate form in Aristotle). So the progression is the first governments tend to be monarchies, but eventually become tyrannies. A group of nobles overthrow the tyrant and form an aristocracy to return to virtuous rule. It in turn degenerates into oligarchy and is overthrown by the people in a republic. The republic degenerates into something that divides against itself, refuses to spend enough to defend itself, the majority oppresses the minority who eventually rise up against this, or some other form of degeneracy, and is eventually overthrown by a new king that will rule virtuously and starts the cycle over again. This is obviously stylized and theoretical, but it creates a nice view of how governments can and did transform through the ancient and classical eras
@Kinard007
@Kinard007 10 ай бұрын
Glory to the empire
@KingBasewyn
@KingBasewyn 8 ай бұрын
There’s also technocracy 😊
@steakdriven
@steakdriven 11 ай бұрын
I created a highly oppressive coastal nation ruled by a cabal of evil wizards - The Wotzi Party, led by Archmage Bile Krynk. Wotzi is short for "Wizardly Overlord Trust Syndicate", and its use is generally not permitted by the Wotzis themselves . The city of Tel'Aset is one of despair and fear, with a great spire looming over the skyline - for it is this cursed needle that serves as the Wotzi's mage tower. Worship of the gods is outlawed; the only cult allowed to flourish is that of Kaokhris, the infamously poorly-endowed arch-devil of greed. There is also a great deal of racial oppression; not only are half-elves and half-orcs "kill on sight", mere mention of their existence is enough to get a citizen thrown into a re-education camp.
@DeathEatsCurry
@DeathEatsCurry 11 ай бұрын
If our daimyo is to become Zho, military ruler of all of Kathochusho..
@namastereciprocity4549
@namastereciprocity4549 10 ай бұрын
Civilizations dont often reform into Democracies. More often it evolves into some other representative federation. due to slight shift of power. absolute Monarchy into Constitutional monarchy. (nobilty rise in power) Constitutional Monarchy into Representative Parliament (Peasents become wealtheir)
@baneofbanes
@baneofbanes 10 ай бұрын
That’s a form of democracy.
@namastereciprocity4549
@namastereciprocity4549 10 ай бұрын
@@baneofbanes My point being that there's a transition period before a democracy can be established. Constitutional Monarchy is not automatically democratic. They can evolve into Democracies.
@baneofbanes
@baneofbanes 10 ай бұрын
@@namastereciprocity4549 that doesn’t change what I said.
@namastereciprocity4549
@namastereciprocity4549 10 ай бұрын
@@baneofbanes doesn’t change what I said either.
@baneofbanes
@baneofbanes 10 ай бұрын
@@namastereciprocity4549 cool, what you said is still wrong.
@laisphinto6372
@laisphinto6372 Жыл бұрын
Most famous empires are republics hell the poster boy rome conquered nearly everything as a republic and as an empire wasnt nearly as conquering aggressive as in the republic time
@addisonwelsh
@addisonwelsh 11 ай бұрын
Not really. As a republic they only conquered Italy, Greece, most of Spain, and a bit of North Africa and west Turkey. Caesar conquered Gaul (France) without permission from the Senate, Egypt was conquered at the dawn of Augustus' reign, and the Empire would go on to conquer southern Britain, Turkey, large portions of the near east, the rest of Spain and North Africa, and some parts of Southern Europe. The Roman Empire was just as aggressive as the republic, if not more.
@Marinealver
@Marinealver Жыл бұрын
Federal or Imperial
@petersmythe6462
@petersmythe6462 Жыл бұрын
It's interesting that almost invariably, the high living standards and egalitarian democracy of tribal lifestyles are lost in favor of much higher population, higher organization, and rigid autocracy as civilizations develop. But it seems like they don't get both. Either everyone is well fed, there aren't many people, and society is primitive communism, or everyone is struggling but the upper classes, there are a zillion people, and it's some kind of dictatorship run for the benefits of those upper classes. Despite no theoretical reason it can't happen while maintaining living standards and democracy, agricultural societies with complex organization and large populations seem to invariably lose their high education, living standards, and egalitarianism.
@user-bi3bv3xo1g
@user-bi3bv3xo1g 11 ай бұрын
I’ve got to be honest, I know a lot of people think that early tribal life was great and everyone had enough to survive, but that doesn’t seem true to me at all. When you have a society like that, it’s hard to have metal tools that improve the efficiency of hunting or making shelters. You’re at the mercy of harsh winters and long droughts and say wolves that come after your herds. Not to mention having to deal with other tribes who can try to take your stuff or who kill you so that they don’t have to compete for resources. Settled agricultural society certainly seems to introduce the extremes of inequality that we see throughout history, but it does also seem to benefit everyone to some degree. Some benefit more than others, primarily based on the control of land, but generally everyone benefits and it certainly isn’t destroying some perfect system where everyone is happy. It’s a strange utopian idea that Plato and later Rousseau have that just doesn’t make sense to me
@paulster185
@paulster185 10 ай бұрын
​@@user-bi3bv3xo1gbefore agriculture people were better fed (healthier, taller). But the agriculture had one advantage, it allowed support more people per square mile.
@middler5
@middler5 6 ай бұрын
Only issue here is the idea that Aristocracy picks leaders on merit.
@Duck-wc9de
@Duck-wc9de 6 ай бұрын
I created a nation that was an absolute monarchy that was deposed to a democratic republic that devolved into a centralized dictatorship due to lack of strong institutions or democratic history
@MonkeyWhoWouldBeKing
@MonkeyWhoWouldBeKing 10 ай бұрын
so 'science adjacent' method really just means whatever seems intuitive to this lad, huh? o.0
@kosmaukaszczyk8401
@kosmaukaszczyk8401 3 ай бұрын
so in my fictional world there is a grand chiefdom and half-setlled empire but some of their vassals are fully settled the country is clanocracy ( there are clans ruling ) there is elective monarch must be male from one of 15 main clans ( often son of previous ruler if their reing was good) and at least 12 which is adult age in their culture . monarch shares his rule with council of elder made from oldests person from each clan that want to take place and is healthy on mind ( only males) there is no real capital as grand chief almost always changes his location there are some building used for housing important event like corronation or marriages ( thery allow having lovers) country is agrresive but not stupidly there are some villages and cities ( mostly conquested ones) but about 80% of population still uses hunting and gathering to live in left 20% around 10% lives from raving other countries, 4% lives from merchandise, 2% leaves from production , and only 1.5% lives from farming and 2.5% lives from other things
@brockscanlan8891
@brockscanlan8891 Жыл бұрын
🙌🙌🙌
@WorldbuildingCorner
@WorldbuildingCorner Жыл бұрын
🙌🏛️👑
@Biotear
@Biotear 10 ай бұрын
7:17 The false gods of the tribunal must be driven from Morrowind
@antonywerner1893
@antonywerner1893 9 ай бұрын
Actually you can categuraise goverments by state form (Monarchy or republic) it is every time a republic wen the ruler is elected in any from. And the other part of the catigusation is how power is distribruted and actet so we in germany are a republic with a representiv democracy. The peopels republic of china is a republic with a party Dictaturship. And the Stratocraty you disriped woud actually be a republic be couse the title is not inerhended but elected.
@privateuser3726
@privateuser3726 9 ай бұрын
9:30 Democracies didn't vote for leaders had direct votes for decisions, the reason Democracies evolved into republics is because this simply doesn't work on a larger scale and why we switched to voting for representatives and leaders
@WikiSnapper
@WikiSnapper 11 ай бұрын
Did you intentionally find a map of the United States that has Oregon and Washington in the wrong places?
@realyoriginalchanel3218
@realyoriginalchanel3218 11 ай бұрын
The definition of empire you used us wrong. Its a title that reffere to the heritage of Rome exclusively. The modern misdefinition is based on unofficial empires and the assumption that inorialism us connected to enpure, which it technically isnt.
@ChasePhifer-hj3wl
@ChasePhifer-hj3wl 4 ай бұрын
Govt also means the executive/cabinet. It would be terrible if i heard the govt of canada fell if it meant the former definition. Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! 😅🇨🇦
@jamesgoldring1052
@jamesgoldring1052 10 ай бұрын
There are no categories or types of society it's always about who has the army
@UnfortunateAgatoria
@UnfortunateAgatoria 6 ай бұрын
I genuinely thought johnny sins was teaching me empire building for a second....
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