History
The Imperium is established on Terra (Earth) in the 30th millennium AD as the planet's sole authority; several centuries later, it embarks on a Great Crusade, an interstellar crusade intended to bring all human-settled worlds in the Milky Way galaxy under its banner. Over the course of two Terran centuries, the Crusade reaches star systems more than 50,000 light years away from its original staging point in the Sol (Solar) System, assimilates millions of worlds into the Imperium, and gives Humankind a dominant position among the galaxy's species; according to Imperial propaganda, it is humanity's "Manifest Destiny" to rule the galaxy.
Early in the 31st millennium, the Crusade comes to a sudden stop as the Imperium is nearly torn asunder in a galaxy-wide civil war known as the Horus Heresy; the war decimates and eventually redefines the Imperium. Following the Horus Heresy, the crippled institution undergoes a centuries-long, often violent rebuilding.
Read more about this topic: Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)