Also the day the War started, which is not a coincidence (Don’t forget to sign up for notifications and the Launch Party for the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit!).
In retrospect, the Dominion picked a really bad time to have a succession crisis and civil war. It wasn’t just the loss of their Deseret conquests; the Imperium Orci was allowed to conquer south largely unsupervised. By the time the Dominion reasserted full control over the Imperial Court, missionaries had already begun spreading the good words of Christianity, civics, and the Enlightenment.
Moral of the story? I dunno. Don’t try to take over the world?
Moe Lane
I blame the (mostly) peaceful state of the world for the last 80 years on America deciding that world conquest was a suckers’ game in 1945.
American foreign policy: “We will not rule the world, AND NEITHER WILL YOU.” Or, as Tolkien put it (much better than I did),
“The Enemy, of course, has long known that the Ring is abroad, and that it is borne by a hobbit. He knows now the number of our Company that set out from Rivendell, and the kind of each of us. But he does not yet perceive our purpose clearly. He supposes that we were all going to Minas Tirith; for that is what he would himself have done in our place. And according to his wisdom it would have been a heavy stroke against his power. Indeed he is in great fear, not knowing what mighty one may suddenly appear, wielding the Ring, and assailing him with war, seeking to cast him down and take his place. That we should wish to cast him down and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind. That we should try to destroy the Ring itself has not yet entered into his darkest dream.”