Biggest of Alpha Quadrant Powers

[jmampilly]

Could the klingon Empire have a population of a trillion? Don't see why not, we see mostly biological/ethic Klingon on the show, but there has long been an unofficial belief that the Empire has other species as part of it. Everything from second class citizens through out and out slaves.

A total population of a trillion? Sure.

Although there is no hard canonical evidence confirming or refuting the idea of a Klingon Empire with a trillion people, I find that hard to believe. We have seen absolutely no evidence of Klingon slave species, and it is unlikely that, even if said species existed, they have had much reason to propagate hafter being subjugated.

 

[Nebusj]

I'd figured the biggest Alpha Quadrant power to be the Talleirians, what with their crews of a thousand ten miles tall and the like.

 

[T'Girl]

We have seen absolutely no evidence of Klingon slave species ...

From Errand of Mercy ...

KIRK: Gentlemen, I have seen what the Klingons do to planets like yours. They are organized into vast slave labor camps. No freedoms whatsoever.

 

[jmampilly]

We have seen absolutely no evidence of Klingon slave species ...

From Errand of Mercy ...

KIRK: Gentlemen, I have seen what the Klingons do to planets like yours. They are organized into vast slave labor camps. No freedoms whatsoever.

I see I was wrong. However, I still don't see how the Klingon Empire's total population could surpass that of the Federation.

 

[T'Girl]

The Empire is older than the Federation, perhaps significantly older. It all has to do with how many star systems are in the Empire, how many inhabital planets, what their populations are.

If the Klingon historically have been a conquering species, large numbers of the planets in the Empire could be mostly the indigious species ruled by one of the klingon houses, maybe only a few hundred thousand Klingons controling a native population of billions.

There was also the planet in The Trouble with Tribbles, because the Federation wanted it we can assume it didn't have a native population, but the Klingons wanted to colonize it too. So they colonize "virgin" worlds, and according to Mr. Spock they're good at it.

The Empire doesn't have members, they have families houses. I've alway imagined that there are various sized houses, large, medium and small (and tiny). The larger houses might control dozens or even hundreds of star systems, entire regions within the Empire.

Medium sized houses have a single world, small houses maybe a percentage of a world, or a large city.

A thousand worlds with a population of a billion and you have a trillion people.

 

[USS Triumphant]

We have seen absolutely no evidence of Klingon slave species ...

From Errand of Mercy ...

KIRK: Gentlemen, I have seen what the Klingons do to planets like yours. They are organized into vast slave labor camps. No freedoms whatsoever.

I see I was wrong. However, I still don't see how the Klingon Empire's total population could surpass that of the Federation.

The key part of what Kirk said there might be "like yours" - probably meaning worlds with strategic or luxury resources that the Empire highly prizes. It seems likely to me that in many cases where no such resources are present, the conquering Klingons might require a world to swear fealty to the Empire, and perhaps additionally to a particular house, and then also require some sort of regular tribute - and other than that, leave them alone. (This is similar to how the Mongol Empire ruled almost half of our planet, and the Klingons seem modeled on them a bit, at least to me.)

 

[T'Girl]

KIRK: Gentlemen, I have seen what the Klingons do to planets like yours.

The key part of what Kirk said there might be "like yours" - probably meaning worlds with strategic or luxury resources that the Empire highly prizes.

I think Kirk was referring to Organia being primitive and especially defenseless.

YMMV.

 

[F. King Daniel]

ENT: "Judgement" features the Enterprise attempting to help a ship fleeing from Klingon space. IIRC, Duras claims they're a subject race of the Empire.

 

[T'Girl]

When the Roman Republic (and later Empire) would conquer new lands, the people who lived there would become Roman citizens, but there were different levels of citizenship.

There is conceivably a wide divide between being Klingon and being a slave. There are biological Klingons (of the imperial race?) and there would be "Klingons" from a large number of different species. Citizens of the Empire.

Some of whom over generations have become Ethic Klingon.

 

[Use of Time]

By TUC the Klingons were reeling though. Would they really be able to sustain that grip on all of these alleged "slave species?

My theory is that the Klingons had a far reaching grip in the early TOS years but due to their reckless and overzealous desire to conquer, they spread themselves too thin trying to maintain their empire and depleted resources faster than they were able to obtain them. That could explain why one small moon exploding in TUC was such a crippling event. Their pride resulted in them decision to rededicate their resources to rebuilding their forces and strengthening their ability to project a force into the Alpha/Beta quadrant.

By the time we get the Klingons in TNG they had succeeded in establishing themselves as a major player again. We don't see or hear any reference to slave species in TNG and the Klingons that we do see often complain that it has been a while since they have fought wars while complaining that their government has gone soft. It just seems that the Klingon government took something of an isolationist role after the events of TUC. War with the Federation was thwarted and the Romulans seemed to keep to themselves. We do see the Klingons attempt to pretty much force a war with Cardassia for the hell of it. There was some Founder meddling involved but the Klingons didn't seem to really care what the reason was at that point.