In the first article, we explored how Hari Seldon used psychohistory to foresee the collapse of the Galactic Empire and established the First Foundation as civilization’s seed. But foreseeing the future is only the first step; how to survive and grow amid the empire’s ruins is the Foundation’s real test. In the second phase of the Foundation saga, Asimov shows us a unique mode of civilizational expansion—not relying on armies and force, but building influence through technological superiority and economic networks. This mode is compelling in the novel and resonates deeply in the real world.
Salvor Hardin: The Rise of a Political Master
The Violence of the Incompetent
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” This line comes from Salvor Hardin, one of the most important mayors in the Foundation’s early history and the embodiment of political realism. When Hardin became the mayor of Terminus at thirty-five, the Foundation faced its first Seldon Crisis: the four “barbarian kingdoms” nearby were eyeing it covetously, while the Foundation had neither an army nor the capacity to manufacture weapons. The traditional encyclopedists believed they should seek imperial protection or build military strength. Hardin saw another path—the Foundation’s sole advantage lay in technology, and technology could be converted into influence more powerful than force.
Techno-Religion: The Art of Control
Hardin’s first innovation was to wrap technology in religion. He exported nuclear technology to the Four Kingdoms but withheld scientific principles, instead prescribing religious rituals for operating the devices. In those kingdoms that had lost technological knowledge, Foundation “technicians” who could provide energy, medical care, and communications became priestly figures, and the Foundation itself became a sacred technological sanctuary. The strategy’s brilliance lay in:
- Dependency building: The rulers and people of the Four Kingdoms gradually relied on Foundation tech for basic life—from energy supply to medical services.
- Knowledge monopoly: By sacralizing technology, the Foundation ensured that secrets wouldn’t leak. Any attempt to “profane” devices (i.e., disassemble and study them) was treated as heresy.
- Ideological control: Religion not only governed material life, it shaped spiritual identity. The Foundation became a symbol of civilization and progress.
- Nonviolent coercion: When the king of Anacreon tried to invade the Foundation, Hardin merely threatened to cut energy supply, enough to trigger domestic rebellion and force the king to abandon the plan.
The Essence of Political Wisdom
Hardin’s success did not come from greater strength but from a deeper grasp of power’s nature. In his view, true power comes from indispensability—when you control resources others need to live, you need not use violence to gain compliance. This insight let the Foundation dominate its surrounding regions without a single soldier. Yet Hardin also understood the limits: religious control only works when the technological gap is wide enough. Over time, neighboring kingdoms would gradually grasp the principles, and the mystical veil of religion would fade. The Foundation therefore had to continually evolve its control strategies.
The Advent of the Traders’ Era
From Religion to Commerce
About a century after Hardin, the Foundation entered a new development stage—the Traders’ Era. The emblematic figure of this shift is Hober Mallow, a man of humble origins but exceptional commercial acumen. Mallow found that religious control, though effective, had a fatal flaw: it is essentially a deception, and once exposed, it provokes fierce backlash. More importantly, as the surrounding kingdoms stabilized and developed, mere techno-veneration was no longer sufficient to maintain control. The Foundation needed a more sustainable and resilient mode of expansion. Mallow’s answer was trade—not simple exchange of goods, but the construction of systemic economic dependency.
Commoditizing Technology
Mallow pushed the Foundation to transform from “tech priests” into “tech suppliers.” He exported the Foundation’s advanced products to more distant worlds, including some that retained higher levels of civilization:
- Consumer electronics: personal communication devices, entertainment systems, household appliances—greatly improving quality of life and quickly becoming necessities.
- Production tools: efficient energy systems, automated machinery, medical equipment—raising productivity and creating new growth.
- Luxury goods: high-end tech products for ruling elites—satisfying vanity while deepening goodwill toward the Foundation.
Crucially, the core components of these products could only be sourced from the Foundation. Mallow carefully designed the scope of technology transfer: imparting enough knowledge for customers to use and maintain products, but never revealing core manufacturing techniques. This created a perfect commercial loop.
A Network of Economic Dependency
Beyond simple tech monopolies, Mallow built a complex economic ecosystem:
- Localized production chains: training local dealers and service personnel on client worlds, creating jobs and business opportunities, binding local elites’ interests to the Foundation.
- Financial penetration: through loans and investments, Foundation capital reached every corner of client economies.
- Standard-setting: Foundation technical standards became industry norms; any world wanting to join interstellar trade had to adopt Foundation systems.
- People exchange: encouraging young people from client worlds to study and work at the Foundation, cultivating pro-Foundation elites.
The brilliance lies in creating genuine value rather than one-way exploitation. Client worlds did achieve better living standards and economic growth, yet simultaneously became inseparable from the Foundation. This dependence was not imposed but chosen “voluntarily”—making it far more stable than military conquest or religious control.
The Korell Republic Crisis
Mallow’s wisdom shines brightest in his handling of Korell. Korell retained relatively strong military power, and its ruler, threatened by the Foundation’s expansion, launched a war. The traditional response would be military retaliation, but the Foundation remained militarily weak. Mallow’s strategy was to do nothing—just wait. Why? Because he had already laid deep economic roots in Korell. When war broke out, Korell’s economy instantly fell into chaos: factories halted for lack of Foundation parts, citizens resented the loss of everyday tech products, and the merchant class suffered heavy losses from disrupted trade. Within months, Korell’s merchants and capitalists staged a coup, overthrew the warmongering ruler, and formed a pro-Foundation government. Mallow won the war without firing a shot. This case perfectly embodies his dictum: “A good policy is better than an atom bomb.”
The Philosophy of Soft Power: Technology as a Civilizational Tool
Three Forms of Power
Through the Foundation’s evolution, Asimov presents three forms of power:
- Physical violence: the primitive force relied upon by the barbarian kingdoms—direct but fragile, requiring constant high-cost input.
- Spiritual control: the religious strategy of Hardin’s era—effective but built on deception, ultimately undone by truth.
- Economic integration: the trade networks of Mallow’s era—apparently soft yet most resilient, because they rest on genuine reciprocity and shared interests.
From violence to religion to economy, power becomes more refined, concealed, and sustainable. Each form is more efficient, harder to resist, and more aligned with civilizational progress than the last.
The Two Sides of Tech Dependence
Asimov keenly highlights the double-edged nature of technological dependence.
For providers:
- Establish long-term strategic advantage
- Create sustained revenue streams
- Exert influence without direct administration
- Reduce the likelihood of conflict
For recipients:
- Lose technological autonomy
- Have economic structures shaped by external forces
- Face implicit constraints on political decision-making
- Become vulnerable in times of crisis
Read today, this remains incisive. The Foundation’s relationship with neighboring kingdoms mirrors the ties between technologically advanced nations and developing countries in the modern world.
Nonviolent Civilizational Expansion
The core theme of the Mallow era is that truly advanced civilizations need not conquer. They attract by creating value, control by meeting needs, and integrate through economic fusion. Its brilliance lies in:
- Self-reinforcement: the more the integrated depend, the stronger the integrator becomes—deepening dependence further.
- Moral legitimacy: because real value is created, expansion earns moral standing and meets less resistance.
- Flexible adaptation: economic networks are more elastic than imperial borders, accommodating diverse political systems and cultures.
- Cost-effectiveness: maintaining economic influence is far cheaper than sustaining military occupation.
Echoes in the Real World
Contemporary Forms of Tech Hegemony
Viewed through twentieth-century history onward, the Foundation’s strategy feels strikingly real:
- America’s technological advantage: after WWII, through the Marshall Plan and technology transfer, the U.S. built deep influence over Western Europe and East Asia without direct occupation—rooted in economic aid, tech transfer, and market integration, more enduring than colonial rule.
- Power of multinationals: tech giants such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google, by controlling operating systems, chip architectures, and internet protocols, have built global networks of tech dependence. They need no armies, yet their influence permeates nearly every country’s economy and daily life.
- Standards and platforms: those who set technical standards control the future. From USB to 5G, standard-setting often determines value distribution across industries.
- Data and algorithms: in the AI era, data and algorithms are new “core technologies.” Actors who command these resources are creating new forms of dependence.
Warnings about Development Traps
Asimov also offers cautionary notes:
- The challenge of technology transfer: developing countries face a dilemma—refuse dependence and fall behind; accept it and risk never achieving autonomy.
- A tech version of the “middle-income trap”: like Korell, a society may reach a certain level yet fail to break through because core technology is constrained by others.
- Entrenched interest groups: when local elites’ interests are tied to external providers, they may become guardians of dependence, hindering genuine innovation.
Possibilities for Breaking Dependence
The Foundation saga hints at possibilities for breakthroughs. Later stories introduce forces that challenge the Foundation’s hegemony, just as emerging tech powers pursue indigenous innovation to contest existing orders. Escaping dependence requires:
- Long-term strategic vision: willingness to accept short-term efficiency losses and invest in basic research and talent
- Institutional support: legal and financial systems that protect and incentivize innovation
- Cultural transformation: shifting from imitation to an innovation mindset
- International cooperation: finding like-minded partners to build alternative tech ecosystems
Limits of the Traders’ Era
Narrowing Tech Gaps
Mallow’s strategy contains an internal contradiction: trade inevitably diffuses knowledge. As the Foundation exports products, it also trains technicians and spreads scientific thinking. Over time, client worlds’ capabilities grow and the gap narrows. This plants a narrative seed: when the tech gap no longer looms large, the Foundation will need new strategies—foreshadowing a third developmental stage.
Variables It Cannot Handle
More critically, both Mallow’s economic strategy and Hardin’s religious strategy rest on a core assumption of Seldon’s psychohistory: the predictability of large populations. This fails in the face of extraordinary individuals. In Foundation and Empire, a mutant known as the Mule appears. He possesses mind-control abilities that can directly alter emotions and loyalty. Against such individual power, neither religious control nor economic dependence avails. Technology and economy can shape group behavior, but they cannot resist a force that manipulates the human heart directly. The turn reminds us: no strategy is omnipotent. Systemic advantages can meet systemic challenges, but when confronted with fundamental uncertainty, even the most exquisite plans may collapse.
Enduring Insights
Though the Traders’ Era stories are more than eighty years old, their questions remain vivid:
- How do we expand influence without violence? The Foundation’s answer: create value others cannot refuse.
- Is technological progress liberation or a new shackle? Technology improves life, yet can also forge new dependencies. The key lies in who controls core tech and how its benefits are distributed.
- Is economic integration a path to peace or a veiled imperialism? Trade can forge shared interests and promote peace; it can also hide unequal relationships. The difference depends on genuine reciprocity and whether the weaker party truly has choice.
- How can long-term plans face the unforeseeable? Even Seldon could not predict the Mule. Any strategy must maintain adaptability and resilience, leaving room to face the unknown.
Through the Foundation’s evolution, Asimov offers a possible path for civilizational development: from force to ideas, from ideas to economy, from conquest to integration. Each step advances toward more efficient, humane, and complex forms of power. But the process is neither linear nor one-way. History is full of surprises; there are always forces capable of breaking the most meticulous plans. This is both the Foundation’s challenge and the reason its story remains endlessly compelling.
Next issue preview: The third article in the Foundation blog series will examine the saga’s most dramatic turn—the rise of the Mule. How did a mutant capable of manipulating human emotions dismantle Seldon’s millennial plan in just a few years? What does his story reveal about individuals versus history, necessity versus contingency? Stay tuned for “The Mutant’s Reversal: When Personal Will Confronts Historical Inevitability.”