- You may wish to consult
Human Empirefor other, similarly-named pages.
The Earth Empire was formed sometime between 2480 and 2520 and fell sometime between 2980 and 3020.
History
The definitive date of the formation of the Empire remains unknown. Around 2501, Earth was controlled by EarthGov. (PROSE: The Monsters Inside) In the 2530s, an Earth Federation existed. (PROSE: The Colony of Lies)
By 2472, Earth was severely polluted and overpopulated, with a hundred billion citizens. (TV: Colony in Space) In 2480, Earth was invaded by the Korven, leading to a human victory. Tensions between the Earth Empire and the Korven lasted until at least 2618. (TV: The Korven) Food was imported from the colonies. In the 26th century, cities like New Glasgow and New Montreal were built in the Arctic, and population control laws restricted families to one child unless they moved to the Arctic cities. A free press and broadcasting service existed. (TV: Frontier in Space)
The Earth Empire continued to grow and established Skybases as command centres wherever Earth had a presence. (TV: The Mutants, PROSE: Cold Fusion) In the 26th century, humans occupied one part of the Milky Way galaxy, while the Draconian Empire occupied another. There was a war between the two after a cultural misunderstanding (humans being unaware that Draconians sent battlecruisers to diplomatic meetings), ending with articles of peace that guaranteed a "frontier in space" between the two; trade agreements and cultural exchanges were instituted to lessen tensions. (TV: Frontier in Space) In a later presidential election, war hero John Williams campaigned for an "aggressive inter-stellar policy" against the successful candidate. She appointed him to her government to heal political divides. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Space War)
In 2540, the Master, employing Ogrons, stirred up war between Earth and Draconia on behalf of the Daleks. Faked attacks on frontier craft had the human public and political opposition soon demanding war. His plan was exposed (TV: Frontier in Space) and the Second Dalek War began. (PROSE: Return of the Living Dad) It would rage on for decades, with an entire "Dalek Generation" who couldn't remember peacetime. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks) Mars itself was occupied. (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars)
Not every human in space chose to live in the Earth Empire. One band of the anarchist Travellers, for example, settled on Heaven, a neutral planet used as a burial ground by both sides. (PROSE: Love and War)
Some time after the 26th century, the Earth Empire invaded Tractis and enslaved the Tractites. (PROSE: Genocide) In the 28th century, the Empire came to Sense Sphere to exploit its mineral wealth. Two humans deserted the Sense Sphere in their spaceship while pretending to get reinforcements, but their Commander blew up the ship, leaving three humans stranded for ten years as they slowly poisoned the Sensorites from the aqueducts. When more humans came, the Sensorites held them hostage until the the First Doctor and his companions made peace. (TV: The Sensorites) Some time before the 30th century, the Earth Empire attacked the Greld homeworld, conquering it and turning it into the prison planet Dis. (PROSE: Original Sin)
A Third Dalek War would put a stop to the Empire's expansion for a while. (PROSE: The Chase, Sky Pirates!)
In later centuries, the Empire became increasingly more unequal, prejudiced, and under the control of a Divine Empress. (PROSE: Secret of the Black Planet, Original Sin)
In the 28th century, townships around the major cities were no-go areas and travel permits were required to leave them; Earth was divided into regions (including the moon) and administered by a president, with Africa, South Chinese Union, and the moon as the wealthiest; and the IT corporation Panafrica, run by the mighty Rohihlahla family, had rewritten history to portray Nelson Mandela as the founder of apartheid, to support the contemporary African elites and their apartheid policies. The Rohihlahlas' machinations were exposed and the dynasty is supplanted by the Forresters. PROSE: Secret of the Black Planet)
In 2850, a new Empreess was coronated.(PROSE: So Vile a Sin)
By the mid-30th century, an aged Divine Empress reigned from her Imperial Palace in orbit around Saturn, with a feudal system in place. The empire was conquering alien planets and most imperial subjects were prejudiced against other species, even though humans, by this time had learned to "body bepple" into new, sometimes alien-seeming forms. Earth Reptiles had the highest status among non-human species, as they were Earthborn. The rich lived in hovering Overcities, leaving the poor and alien on the polluted surface of the Earth, with the decaying former cities like London; even the Overcities were stratified by wealth, with the relatively poorer confined to lower levels. The Imperial Landsknechte and the Vigilant space defences had Earth defended. (PROSE: Original Sin, So Vile a Sin) Environmental devastation had left Earth in a degraded state. On conquered alien worlds, human "Overlords" ruled aliens, who had lesser rights, from Skybases. (TV: The Mutants)
In 2957, the Earth Empire had recently fought the latest of the Wars of Acquisition. This had included the Empire terraforming the Hith homeworld and leaving the species homeless, as well as Earth itself being bombarded. Icaron radiation from a Hithis ship held by Tobias Vaughn sparked off a wave of psychotic murders which escalated to Overcity riots and some cities falling from the sky. (PROSE: Original Sin) This started the Empire's downfall.
In the late 30th century, the Empire had begun to crumble: with Earth exhausted politically and economically, it could not afford an Empire and began giving independence to its colonies.(TV: The Mutants Attempts were made to check the fall of the Empire, with little success. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice)
In 2982, as a war with the Ogrons dragged on and political factions vied for power, the Seventh Doctor and his companion, the Adjudicators Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej got involved in a political struggle which would end in the installation of Roz's sister, Leabie, as the new Empress. The current Empress was centuries old and her mind was slaved to the computer intelligence Centcomp, which effectively ran her Empire, and requested the Doctor kill her. (PROSE: So Vile a Sin)
Within five years of becoming Empress, Leabie Forrester dismantled the Empire, granting independence to every planet whether they wanted it or not. After which, Earth was abandoned by its former colonies as the Overcities fell out of the sky, and the remaining population descended into barbarism, with the surviving humans turning on the aliens as sources of food. (PROSE: Dependence Day)
Its collapse left a power vacuum that, by the 34th century, would be filled by the Earth Alliance, a more loose alliance of Earth and its colonies (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time, Invasion of the Daleks), and the Galactic Federation, which would be less Earth-centric and human-dominated (PROSE: The Dark Path) A Terran Federation also existed by the late 29th century. (AUDIO: Occam's Razor) On Earth itself, humanity would rebound in the later 31st century. Survivors of the Overcities would form Europa in former Europe (PROSE:Managra) and the Fifth Doctor said the 31st century was "all space cities and monorails." (AUDIO: The Butcher of Brisbane) The planet would become a founding member of the Federation in the 32nd century. (PROSE: Legacy)
The Galactic Federation would last to at least the 41st century, upon which it was fatally damaged in a war with the Daleks (PROSE: Legacy), and the Earth Alliance to at least the 41st century until its own Dalek war. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks) An Earth-centred humanity was already quite powerful in 4000 (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) and would evolve into the Earth Empire's successor, the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. (TV: Planet of the Ood)
Technology
Empire ships were generally built of spheres, connected by scaffolding. Ships were covered with bas-relief carvings of leaves and faces and similar decorations. The designs used by the Earth Empire were considered unpleasant by other species. (PROSE: The Dark Path)
A specific type of ship was the Dauntless-class Imperial Destroyer. (PROSE: The Dark Path)
The citizens of the Empire (and others) used puterspace, a form of virtual reality. (PROSE: Love and War) The Empire's monopoly on null-grav technology kept it powerful. (PROSE: Original Sin)
Political system
The Earth Empire was a lumbering bureaucracy with as many civil servants as civilians. The planetary or colonial governor of a planet was called a Viscount. (PROSE: The Dark Path) In the 26th century it was overseen by a President of Earth, who headed a world government with a Cabinet, a congress, and a senate; a democratic opposition existed within the congress and senate. The government also had a Bureau of Population Control. An outlaw political group, the Peace Party, tried to gain power. (TV: Frontier in Space)
As with the British Empire, dominion planets like Sirius IV had a large degree of autonomy. Some on Earth looked down on the dominions as jumped-up colonies. (TV: Frontier in Space)
Eventually, the Empire would be run by a Divine Empress with absolute control. (PROSE: Original Sin) The 30th centuy had a feudal system: Barons controlled a few hundred levels of an Overcity, a Viscount ran an Overcity, a Count or Countess ruled about ten Overcities, a Marquess or Marquessa ruled Earth, and the Duke Marmion controlled Earth's Solar System. (PROSE: Original Sin, So Vile a Sin)
There also existed an Earth Reptile Economic Confederation in the 30th century. (PROSE: So Vile a Sin)
The Folflower System was unusual in its constitutional monarchy for most of the duration of the Empire. (PROSE: The Graves of Mordane)
Military forces
In purely military matters, the President's power was limited; to overrule the head of the military in these matters, the President needed the backing of the full Senate. (TV: Frontier in Space)
The Empire had the Spacefleet (PROSE: Deceit) and an Imperial Navy (PROSE: The Dark Path). Security was provided by the Imperial Landsknechte or Naval Troops. (PROSE: The Dark Path) They also had a feared Earth Security organisation that interrogated suspected traitors, often using mind probes. A Special Security Act allowed the President to deport traitors to the Lunar Penal Colony without trial. (TV: Frontier in Space)
In 2540, some of the senior military officials believed a military dictatorship would lead to a more effective and stronger Empire. General John Williams did not agree but was willing to use the threat of these officials to pressure the President. (TV: Frontier in Space)
In 2618, the military force of Earth was the Global Command. One of the divisions of Global Command was the Special Operations Commando. (TV: The Korven)
In later centuries, the Empire's forces would begin to conquer alien races and inhabited worlds. (PROSE: Original Sin)
In 2982, the special army/religious order Unitatus was part of Earth's defences. (PROSE: So Vile a Sin)
Crime and punishment
In the 25th century, the Adjudicators Bureau settled legal disputes in the Empire and enforced Earth law. (TV: Colony in Space) In the 26th century, Interplanetary Police Commissioners administered off-planet law, using their own ships with cell facilities. (TV: Frontier in Space)
During war, condemned criminals were given the choice to be sent into Dalek space as Dalek Killers, essentially a suicide mission, rather than execution. (COMIC: Abslom Daak... Dalek Killer)
Under the Special Security Act, political dissidents went to the Lunar Penal Colony (TV: Frontier in Space, PROSE: Love and War), Justicia (PROSE: The Monsters Inside) or Draconian Penal Colonies (PROSE: The Dark Path). The Lunar colony was a life sentence. Many of the dissidents were members of the Peace Party. One Peace Party member remarked to the Doctor that you could be arrested merely for criticising the government. Hardened criminals from regular prisoners were hired as trustees at the Lunar Penal Colony. (TV: Frontier in Space)
In the later years of the Empire, the Adjudicators (now the Guild of Adjudicators) would become an armed law enforcement body. (PROSE: The Dark Path)
Territories
Colonies under Earth control included:
In the 25th century, planets were tasked for either colonisation or mining. (TV: Colony in Space) There were often tensions with the colony worlds, even into the 26th century. (TV: Frontier in Space)
Some of these planets, such as Sirius IV, had dominion status, allowing them to tax and try their own citizens. Many on Earth looked down on them, seeing them as still colonies. (TV: Frontier in Space)
The Empire would capture and subjugate many inhabited planets and their indigenous populations. (PROSE: Original Sin) (PROSE: So Vile a Sin) An apartheid system would exist on some of these planets, including Solos. (TV: The Mutants)
In the 30th century, the Empire began to collapse. Many colonies were given independence. (TV: The Mutants)
Notable individuals
As noted previously, the Adjudicators Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester of the powerful Forester family grew up in the late Earth Empire period of the 30th century. (PROSE: Original Sin)
Two other, very different 26th century individuals, both of whom had loved ones killed by the Daleks (and who later met (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks)) lived during the earlier history of the Empire:
- One, a particularly savage Dalek Killer named Abslom Daak, living in the time after the human-Draconian War, survived (COMIC: Abslom Daak... Dalek Killer) and did so well for himself that, by 2573, at least one clone of him existed in human-occupied space. (PROSE: Deceit)
- The other, adventurer-archaeologist Bernice ("Benny") Summerfield, had lost both parents in the Second Dalek War. She met the Seventh Doctor on Heaven, a neutral planet, in mid-2570. (PROSE: Love and War) She joined him on his travels, but after her marriage to Jason Kane (PROSE: Happy Endings) and a divorce from him, (PROSE: Eternity Weeps) settled back into her own time. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
Though originally native to the late 1980s, after her travels with the Seventh Doctor, Ace decided to stay on Heaven at the same time as Benny joined him. (PROSE: Love and War) Ace joined Spacefleet, where she served for at least three years in her mid-to-late twenties. (PROSE: Deceit)