How Big Was Khan's Empire?

if you want to support me on patreon click the element on the end screen hey guys what's up tyler here and wow 2020's been wild we've gotten not one but two new star trek series this year picard and lower decks as well as a third season of discovery set over a millennium in the future as the franchise continues to grow and more light is shed on different time periods in star trek's history a few outstanding eras still haven't received as much attention one is the late 20th century the period containing the eugenics wars conflicts brought on by genetic engineering that resulted in tens of millions of deaths in addition to human society's aversion to genetic enhancement the eugenics war's longest lasting legacy is probably khan nunian singh the most prominent of the so-called augments who ruled for four years before he and his followers were forced off world the true nature of the eugenics wars is rather vague as spock indicates in the original series episode space seed khan's first appearance records from the period including khan's origins are fragmented somewhat contradictory statements have been made about the eugenics wars in their relation to world war iii a nuclear conflict that was just as instrumental in laying the groundwork for united earth and the federation in this video i'll attempt to make sense of these conflicting accounts also attempt to establish a theoretical timeline combining canon evidence reasonable inference and light speculation so what were the eugenics wars we'll start with what we know from canon based on information we're given in space see as well as khan's backstory from star trek into darkness the augments were created as part of selective breeding and genetic engineering experiments during the cold war into darkness establishes that the majority of the augments were born around the late 1950s created from a variety of earth's ethnic groups these supermen as they were colloquially referred to were mentally and physically superior to ordinary humans possessed of super strength higher lung capacity enhanced senses and spectacular intelligence the augments were viewed by their creators as humanity's final hope for peace in a world that had only known war but hand-in-hand with these abilities came an unmatched aggression and arrogance which the scientists had overlooked due to the infancy of genetic technology they were unable to correct these flaws one scientist even wrote that superior ability breeds superior ambition in the 1990s a group of these augments rose to power and held dominance over large swaths of the population the most prominent was khan himself who from 1992 to 1996 was the quote-unquote absolute ruler of more than a quarter of the planet including parts of asia and the middle east of course this is simply what's been pieced together from the aforementioned fragmentary records of earth's history notably the dialogue in spacey does not make it explicitly clear whether khan ruled over a quarter of earth's population or a quarter of earth's land mass regardless the enterprise crew describes khan's reign as an exception to similar circumstances in earth's history lacking internal massacres or wars of aggression until he was attacked james t kirk even calls him the best of the tyrants and the most dangerous this is off putting the spock this romanticism about a ruthless dictator is this spot we humans have a streak of barbarism in us appalling but there nevertheless ruling from a power base in south asia as the story goes khan was followed in 1993 by several other augments assuming control in over 40 countries as khan severely curtailed the freedoms of his subjects the other augments went further creating slave populations from the world's poor but in the mid-1990s the despots began warring among themselves other nations joined in to force them from power by the end in 1996 most of the tyrants were defeated and their territories recaptured khan and the other augments were to be sentenced to death as war criminals but between 80 and 90 of them went unaccounted for governments at the time did not publicly disclose this information to prevent a panic khan and 84 of his followers managed to escape in a self-imposed exile aboard a sleeper ship called the ss botany bay for generations after the augment's secret escape the botany bay was largely regarded as a myth until it was rediscovered in the mid 23rd century the eugenics wars are said to have claimed between 30 and 37 million lives according to references in the original series and enterprise entire populations were bombed out of existence nearly plunging earth into a second dark age this certainly sounds like a global conflict with the debate over genetic engineering continuing well into the 21st century eventually becoming one of the major instigating causes of world war 3 it's easy to see how the eugenics wars in world war 3 are tied together but here's the problem as we are shown in other installments of the franchise particularly the enterprise episode stormfront several elements of trek's late 90s and early 2000s are shared with the real world examples of this include the clinton and bush administrations 911 saddam hussein the iraq war and more the butterfly effect that would likely ensue in the aftermath of a years-long struggle against genetic supermen could just as likely result in a total reconfiguration of earth's political alignments but instead what we see is that it seems to revert back mostly to what we're familiar with whether this points to an effort by trek riders to quietly retcon the eugenics wars or simply portraying alternate history with some familiar elements is unclear the official canon status of the eugenics wars is that they did in fact happen even one of jonathan archer's ancestors served in the war's north african theater as we learned in hatchery still this makes reconciling the eugenics wars with shared real world events rather difficult if we assume the accounts given by the characters are 100 accurate but as we'll soon see this may not be the case greg cox's two-part novel series the eugenics wars the rise and fall of khan noonian singh is the most detailed attempt to explain how the eugenics wars unfolded the books effectively reimagined the eugenics wars as hidden conflicts that publicly manifested as the civil unrest of the 1990s such as the bosnian wars the rwandan genocide and more the augments are portrayed as having engineered the conflicts through puppet leaders until they were defeated by united nations forces prompting their exile now these books while interesting are controversial in the trek community as they frankly contradict what's directly stated on screen the star trek and darkness tie-in comic con while equally if not more controversial actually does a better job of fleshing out the eugenics wars as open conflicts in earth's history they depict khan and many of his cohorts infiltrating governments at the highest levels before enacting a plan to ascend to power and divide the world into seven kingdoms besides khan some of the augmented tyrants featured in the comic were actually name dropped in the original series episode the savage curtain such as ferris ruler of south america and maltevis ruler of the south pacific the comic does show some events that are hard to corroborate such as nuclear exchanges in the americas in the 1990s additionally the comic depicts the augments conquering entire continents which goes well beyond the scope of what we're told in space seed the vast socio-political and economic implications that would arise from these dictatorships are difficult to square with a convergence back to the late 90s we know one possibility is a more limited takeover of the world by augmented tyrants possibly using proxy or puppet leaders as suggested in cox's books now this is not to say i think cox's account should be considered closer to canon but rather the globe spanning conflict would instead be reduced to a specter of overseas fighting the augments would have taken advantage of corruption ethnic strife sovereign debt crises and other upheaval in numerous countries there are also various configurations of asian states that could have composed khan's empire with a total population comprising just under 1.5 billion most key nations however would retain their sovereignty explaining how events like 911 and the iraq war still happen in this scenario the citizens of most western countries might not feel the full effects of the eugenics wars in fact depending on the severity of the conflicts many might not even be aware of the true extent of overseas fighting just as the united states many overseas military operations are usually not at the forefront of public consciousness but with u.n forces comprising the meat of the alliance against the augments though mobilization might not necessarily reach world war ii levels institutions would still be strained nonetheless particularly in the aftermath contributing to the long recession that extends into the 2020s this middle of the road approach combining the constraints of cox's books with the open warfare of the con comic and references in canon is the most realistic way i think of interpreting the eugenics wars the augment empires could be seen as expanded versions of the islamic state which had control of large swathes of iraq and syria for years another analog might be the islamic legion the pan-arab military force that was part of muammar gaddafi's vision for an islamic superstate in the sahel khan ferris meltovis and the other augments may have operated much like international business people with national leaders in their pockets as well as access to small but well-equipped private militaries to maintain order competition with a un-backed alliance for resources may have been what really shaped the eugenics wars and the grand tales of alexander the great or napoleon-like escapades would be mere oversimplifications which khan would have no reason to deny hundreds of years later some fans would argue that the eugenics wars in world war iii should be combined into one single conflict in the 2050s since that's still in our future i don't necessarily agree with the inherent logic but i do think it points to an issue that the eugenics wars have in some ways been sidelined by trek's own creative staff often to incorporate real world contemporary events when that may not be necessary for example although the two-part voyager episode features end implicitly takes place in an alternate timeline the conspicuous lack of evidence of the eugenics wars in 1996 los angeles has been a point of discussion the writers felt rightly i think that it would be distracting to show them and in any case most of the fighting would have occurred overseas and concluded by the time the episode takes place that said i do think it's still worth exploring different accounts of what exactly constituted the eugenics wars world war iii and other conflicts depicted throughout the franchise in space seed spock explicitly describes the mid-1990s as quote the era of earth's so-called last world war he states in breton circuses that 37 million people died as a result of despotism in world war three but in star trek first contact will riker cites the death toll of world war iii as 600 million many from a nuclear exchange in the 2050s data also states in the next generation that in the early 22nd century humans were still recovering from the effects of world war iii suggesting a mid-21st century conflict now obviously given that the dialogue connecting world war 3 with the 1990s was written 30 years before such events were intended to occur it's understandable that some discrepancies would arise as real world history began to unfold but even taking this into account it's clear that maintaining consistency in canon on this front was not a priority this points to a debate over the language used to describe these conflicts was the 2050s nuclear exchange world war iv not according to dialogue across multiple series and films by any stretch so what gives well just as the death toll figures are less concrete than they may initially seem since spock also gives low death till figures for world wars 1 and 2 the exact phrasing of the vulcan science officers claims is really what's worth examining here since the eugenics wars in world war iii were both fought over the issue of genetic enhancement the two could be seen as a connected conflict the second being a continuation of the first this is similar to how world war ii is often viewed as the logical conclusion of unresolved issues with the treaty of versailles in the context of civilian deaths due to despotism spock states there were 6 million in world war 1 11 million in world war ii and 37 million in world war iii in real life world war one civilian casualties totaled about 7 million while in world war ii it was upwards of 50 million 11 million of whom were victims of the nazi regime according to enterprise the 37 million figure is also the number of deaths caused by the eco-fascist militia leader philip green in the early 21st century his actions were seen as one of the primary catalysts of earth's decades-long third world war during this time period so this would suggest that spock's 37 million figure and the other 30 to 35 million figures may be distinct from each other even if the two wars are related roving continuity is a concept that many trek fans are reversed to as they see it flying in the face of a measured attempt to maintain consistency in canon but even gene roddenberry himself considered many elements of the original series to be non-canonical as revealed in interviews with various colleagues of his this is not to say that roddenberry had the final word on what was canon but his willingness to retcon certain events in the original series in later installments could provide some wiggle room in trying to reconcile conflicting statements made in different series throughout the franchise in universe referring to the same conflict by different names could also be a consequence of the way federation historians categorize human wars just as some say the seven years war in the 1700s could qualify as the first world war i've definitely presented a lot to unpack for anybody who wishes to examine the arguments presented in this video i think the main point i wanted to get across though is that as with historical events and other sci-fi continuities the divergent nature of real world events means that inevitably all sci-fi ends up becoming alternate history this is already the case with other instances in star trek the aborted launch of an anti-ballistic missile system in 1968 the launch of four additional voyager probes in the nomad probe the opening of a colossal self-contained second biosphere in rural pennsylvania and so much more this doesn't mean that star trek canon should be discarded just because it's always depicted a future from the standpoint of the writers and their respective eras doesn't mean those stories aren't compelling when those features aren't realized khan is one of the most formidable foreboding villains in star trek hell they even made a whole movie about his wrath i think preserving some of the mystery behind khan's true origins and his life events before space seed is still worthwhile because it's always been his charisma and other qualities that sell the character not just his backstory as intriguing as that is in and of itself will we find out more about the eugenics wars one day perhaps but until then i hope this video has at the very least served as a prompt for discussion about how the franchise has handled one of the most impactful events in trek humans history thank you all so much for watching if you enjoyed this video be sure to leave a like and comment and don't forget to share it if you want to support me on patreon click the element on 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Channel: OrangeRiver

Views: 215,586

Keywords: khan, eugenics wars, star trek, trek, lore, theory, augment, khan noonien singh, space seed, wrath of khan, world war 3, phillip green, dy 100, botany bay, greg cox, how big was khan's empire, arik soong, kahn, star trek khan, treksphere, orange river, orange river productions, anim8orkid, tyler pilkinton, enterprise, tos, the original series

Id: GHSIeY1s8zU

Length: 17min 55sec (1075 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2020