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Sounds good to me! (I'm gonna' save this!)
The only thing I have to add is that I recall reading an entry somewhere mentioning that, after absorbing the OEU (or whatever the Terra-based polity was called at that time), the 3I was working towards further expansion to rimward, incl the Bootes Cluster. However. those efforts ceased upon the outbreak of the disruption caused by onset of the 1FW-BarracksEmperors-2FW  era.

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On Thu, 4/21/16, Kenneth Barns <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Tech levels during different times
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Thursday, April 21, 2016, 9:57 PM

 GT:RoF
 describes Near Bootes settlement occurring between c.-2150
 (Sequoyah, Polyphemus) and c.-1800 (Vantage).  However, the
 wheels must have come off quickly after the crisis of -1776,
 as by -1700 worlds in the Near Bootes Cluster were already
 experiencing TL declines and balkanisation.
 The map of the Rule of Man in
 MT:Ref'sManual seems to suggest that the Rule of Man
 allowed the Terran Confederation some quasi-autonomy. 
 However text sources refer to the Confederation being
 "dissolved" upon the establishment of the RoM.  I
 suspect that if the Near Bootes worlds were colonised from
 Terra, which probably _was_ part of the RoM, then they were
 part of the RoM too (even if only nominally, even if only
 temporarily).  On the other hand, MT:S&A refers to
 smaller states in Magyar and Alpha Crucis that "were
 neither part of the old Confederation nor the Rule of
 Man."  So maybe you could throw the Near Bootes
 Cluster in here too.
 The Terran Merc(h)antile Community
 (Combine) started to play some sort of governmental role
 from about -1700, but its involvement in the Near Bootes
 Cluster even at its peak was minimal.  ("Close trade
 links between ... Mirabilis and Lagash.")  Contraction
 of the TMC started almost immediately, and by the time of
 consolidation into the Old Earth Union, it only included the
 worlds between Terra and Forlorn. 
 Still from GT:RoF, the OEU (and
 other interstellar states in the Rim), really only started
 looking outwards again in the century between 100-200. 
 Reference is made to OEU traders visiting worlds a couple of
 subsectors away for the first time in 250.  And by 300, the
 OEU is starting to get involved in the Aslan border zone
 (MT:S&A), and the Near Bootes worlds are starting to
 send new colonies of their own out into Jardin subsector. 
 However consolidation into the Bootes League to come a bit
 later than this.  From this point onwards the Rim worlds
 appear to be increasingly prosperous Imperial Client
 States.  However, T-prime worlds like Jardin (colonised
 directly from Terra, 16 parsecs away) remain uncolonised
 until as late as 450.
 Let's put this together.
  
 If there was any
 settlement rimward of the Near Bootes Cluster before 300, it
 was in a very minor way and may well have died out.  After
 that time, there was the technological and economic
 potential to engage in large-scale rimward colonisation. 
 However, the Rim states seem to have had a greater focus on
 political and economic empire building than astrographic
 expansion: the OEU is clearly a powerhouse politically,
 engaging heavy in the affairs of worlds one or two sectors
 away, but the persistence of the Dingir League, the Bootes
 League, and the Vegan Polity means that states are not
 expanding their borders in any significant way.  We are
 probably looking at "empires" more like the French
 and Dutch ones rather than like the Russian and English
 ones.  Settlements on vacant planets are likely done my
 small-scale private or social entities rather than as an
 expression of government policy.
 Ergo, likely the worlds rimward of
 the Near Bootes Cluster remain clear of large-scale
 colonisation until the establishment of the Autonomous
 Region, if not later.
 Similarly, imagine the situation of
 the Aslan.  You've just developed J1 (TL9).  You love
 expanding into vacant land, preferably without a fight. 
 You see vacant worlds in one direction.  In the other
 direction, you see a group of racially homogenous
 "clans" (human splinter states), each of which is
 rich and technologically sophisticated (multi-sector
 political reach, remember).  These clans seem far more
 interested in making money off each other (and you), and
 don't seem to be overly interested in competing with you
 for the vacant worlds to spinward (after all, they have
 plenty of vacant worlds to rimward if they were interested
 in that).  What would you do?
 The Terrans were faced with pretty
 much the same situation, and pretty much tried the same sort
 of thing: expand _away_from the established power, trade,
 play for time, maybe we can co-exist after all.  The
 situation was different in that: a) the Terrans were
 astrographically hemmed in, and b) the Ziru Sirka found the
 mere presence of independent Terrans (and their invidious
 ideas of innovation) an existential threat.

 (I
 hope other TML'ers don't mind the extensive historic
 screeds!)
 --Cheers!

 Ken

 On 21 April 2016 at 05:29,
 Phil Pugliese (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 wrote:
 This email was sent from yahoo.com which does not allow
 forwarding of emails via email lists. Therefore the
 sender's email address (xxxxxx@yahoo.com)
 has been replaced with a dummy one. The original message
 follows:

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 I agree that once the Interstellar Wars started that RimWard
 movement ceased.

 In fact I believe that in the original CT SolRim supp there
 was mention that the Near Bootes cluster was NOT settled
 till after the demise of the Rule of Man & hence has
 never been part of any Imperium. Then there's the
 mention elsewhere that the Autonomous Region incl worlds
 that had never joined the 3I.  Also, Terra, as part of the
 'Old Earth Union' never lost star travel so I can
 see rimward movement straight thru the Long Night.

 I also can't imagine that the close proximity of
 solomani worlds to Kusyu wouldn't be of a very high
 concern to the aslan. High enough, I believe, to lead to
 major efforts in that direction whenever possible

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