Why did humans lose so badly ??

[Friendshipspren]

So we know that humans nearly succeeded in overrunning the Galaxy three times but were always defeated or atleast beaten to a tie. 

Now we know the delvers were behind the defeat in the second war. But what happened in the third and the first ??

I'm willing to believe delvers first arose during the first war  and ended it. 

But the third war ???

It seems unlikely that humans would carry out the same mistakes and cuna doesn't mention any major delver attacks .

Compared to the Superiority ,Humans also seemingly have vastly superior  technology  ( see the irony )

Mbot is atleast 3 centuries old and he's still far more advanced than the aliens.

Sure the outlawing of AI probably stunted alien tech. But it still doesn't explain why the aliens have such inferior holographic tech , Even After three centuries and even when holographic programming is a popular profession among the aliens as spensa learns from morriamur and the kitsen. 

The technological disparity is also focused on in Defending Elysium.

And the delvers hate all life so I don't see why humanity would have suffered worse than the aliens.

Even if they had ,  the technological disparity would have bridged the gap. 

It's also mentioned that they almost won in the third war as well , but in the end they lost so soundly as to be made into pets or being forced into preserves.

How ??? 

I have one theory. I think it's cause humans lacked political unity. When FTL travel was opened to humans. I think it wasn't one pan global political organization which took to space but rather different nations which did. 

The aliens with thier suppression of dissidents were able to gain political unity , but humanity didn't and remained divided. I guess they split up even more as human colonies on other planets declared thier Independence and tried to start thier own colonies. 

Maybe during the human wars , they weren't just fighting the aliens but each other as well. 

The divisions could be based on race , original earth nationality , culture , language, religion ( or lack of it ), different political ideologies, different policies regarding delvers  or due to interbreeding with other species. (   We have some clues that this might be what happened with the UrDail )

So what do you think ?

 

[Karger]

One factor is the size of the superiority.  The superiority had vast numbers of cooperating systems to fight against earth that may not have been fully unified.  Also with humans inventing AIs and having a large number of cytonics they would have been harder hit by delver attacks.  By the time the third war rolled around the humans must have been pretty beaten down.  I posted my full theoretical timeline on this thread.

 

[Angsos]

Also, don't forget aliens were hijacking humans so that may have been an issue and humans don't always play well with others

[Karger]

On 12/27/2019 at 4:12 PM, Angsos said:

aliens were hijacking humans

What?

[Angsos]

In Defending Elysium

[agrabes]

I think it's a numbers and will to fight kind of thing.  Also, remember that just because people say that humans almost took over the galaxy doesn't mean it's literally true.  It could just mean that the humans caused a lot of damage, but were not really a threat to win the war.  Who knows if this is right or not, but with their being three "Human Wars" it makes me think of the three "Punic Wars" of ancient history between Rome and Carthage.  I think it makes a lot of sense for the wars to be somewhat similar to how those wars played out.

 

1st Punic War: The Ancient Roman Republic is still just a regional power that doesn't even fully control Italy.  Carthage is a republic based in north central Africa, a huge empire that dominates the Mediterranean.  Rome gets drawn into a war with Carthage due to various circumstances with Carthage attacking a Roman ally and Rome being bound to respond.  The war goes on a long time, but Rome and Carthage eventually decide that there's no point to continue and they settle without too much land changing hands.  Carthage's military felt like they should have won the war, particularly Hamilcar Barca, the father of the famous Hannibal.

2nd Punic War: About 20 years later tensions rise between Rome and Carthage over Carthage's holdings in modern day Spain.  Hannibal makes his famous crossing of the Alps and runs rampant in mainland Italy for several years, defeating every Roman army that comes to face him.  Rome realizes that they can't fight him and take the strategy that they will avoid him in Italy while fighting the rest of Carthage in Africa.  Eventually the Romans are successful, defeating Carthage and forcing them to surrender on bad terms.  Carthage is no longer allowed to perform any military actions without permission from Rome and have a huge indemnity to pay.

3rd Punic War: About 50 years later, Carthage had paid off their war indemnity early due to their entire work force being focused on the economy.  Rome was uncomfortable about this due to the fact that Carthage was not under their thumb the way they wanted.  Also, they were jealous/covetous of the rich lands of Carthage.  A Roman senator famously ends every speech in the Senate regardless of topic with "And Carthage must be destroyed!"  Eventually, Carthage's neighbors to the south start attacking them (suspected to be on orders from Rome).  They ask Rome for permission to go to war, but it is denied.  They go to Rome asking what can be done for there to be peace, and Rome makes increasingly harsh demands hoping to force Carthage into war.  After giving in to several impossible demands, they finally can't accept the last Roman demand which is to destroy the city of Carthage and rebuild it miles inland from the coast of the sea.  Carthage is completely and totally destroyed after a long siege and all the people are killed or enslaved by the Romans.  Later, Roman historians say that Rome "besmirched her honor" by acting the way they did.

 

How do you go from one power being stronger than the other to being totally destroyed?  It just takes time and strategy.  Rome defeated Carthage in the 2nd Punic War by enduring the extreme damage Hannibal inflicted on them and then striking back.  In the other two wars, it was never a real fight.  My guess is that something similar happened in the Skyward universe.