Through the use of psychohistory, a future science hypothesized by Asimov, a scientist on Trantor named Hari Seldon in about 12,000 Galactic Era predicts the fall of the empire, and institutes the two foundations. The empire's capital, named Trantor, is the closest habitable planet to the center of the galaxy, and the novels in the Foundation trilogy describe its fall, over a period of centuries, and a period of anarchy and decay, a parallel to the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Dark Ages.Īsimov posits that two foundations are instituted to restore the empire to its former glory. The space navy of the Galactic Empire is called the 'Imperial Navy'. (The establishment of the Empire was originally 34,500 CE, according to Asimov's unofficial unpublished early 1950s chronology.) The Galactic Empire was made possible by the ability of humans to travel through hyperspace. According to the Foundation series chronology established in the late 1990s, it comes into existence approximately 10,000 CE, year one of the Galactic Era. (Galactic Era, the number of years after its founding), the Galactic Empire comprises millions of inhabited worlds with 500 quadrillion residents. The concept evolved through short stories and novellas in Astounding Science Fiction magazine during the 1940s, culminating in the publication of the Foundation stories as a trilogy of books in the early 1950s. Campbell, after reading Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire when he was working at the Philadelphia Navy Yard with Robert Heinlein. The fall of the empire, modelled on the fall of the Roman Empire, is the subject of many of Asimov's novels.Īsimov created the fictional Galactic Empire in the early 1940s based upon the Roman Empire, as a proposal to John W. Cleon II was the last Emperor to hold significant authority. The official symbol of the empire is the Spaceship-and-Sun. For over 12 millennia the seat of imperial authority was located on the ecumenopolis of Trantor, whose population exceeded 40 billion, until it was sacked in the year 12,328. The Empire is spread across the Milky Way galaxy and consists of almost 25 million planets settled exclusively by humans. The Galactic Empire is an interstellar empire featured in Isaac Asimov's Robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation series.

At its height, the Galactic Empire spanned the entire Milky Way galaxyĪurora, Solaria, Terminus, Trantor (capital)Īrkady Darell, Hari Seldon, R.

Isaac asimov foundation and empire