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On Tue, 8/26/14, Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Some more thoughts on TU system development vs countries on Earth
 To: "tml@simplelists.com" <tml@simplelists.com>
 Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2014, 11:51 AM

 On Aug
 26, 2014, at 11:36 AM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) <nobody@simplelists.com>
 wrote:

 > Would an urge
 to expand/conquer (Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan,
 Manifest Destiny, etc) be enough to initiate, sustain, &
 then maintain something like that?

 There is no such thing as ‘urge to
 expand/conquer’.

 All of
 those above mentioned things were all about capturing
 lucrative trade and income and/or valuable resources. A
 low-trade 3I offers nothing to conquer; without the kinds of
 economic gain derived from trade you cannot afford to go
 a-conquering. Even the Vikings preferred trade to
 pillage…in fact most of their pillaging was to get goods
 to fence, I mean ‘trade’ :-)

 No one goes off conquering for the joy of
 conquering. ALWAYS follow the money!

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No such thing?  No way!

I have to differ on that point.
There are people (and I've met more than one) who actually do desire to 'lord it over' others & who will make significant sacrifices, financial & otherwise, to gain the ability to do so. In the case of the 3I &, or the Terran Confederation, there could easily have been folks/families who were driven by a desire to increase their social standing & eagerly participated for just such a reason.

Even though the Persian Empire was very rich, I've read (& seen on PBS) many accounts that all consistently state that Alex's primary motivation was to get revenge upon that empire and then, after that, he kept going on & on 'cuz he wanted to reach the edge of the world.
At least until his army mutinied, that is.

There were been several instances in the Middle Ages were rulers conquered territory to gain prestige.
(In one case it was to gain the title of 'King')
I recall another text where the author commented; "his collection of crowns delivered nothing but social eclat<sic>".

No, people do go off to fight just 'for the hell of it' & they'll go off to conquer for the same reason.

In fact, one thing that's almost a universal human trait is the capacity to engage in self-destructive behavior in pursuit of non-tangible goals.