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 Ketara wrote:
As the title says. What happened to all of the supply and production facilities established for the 30K world by the time of 40K? ...So what's gone wrong?

Basically, the imperium rises to power in the aftermath of 'The Fall'. The Fall was when the previous galactic superpower collapsed. This collapse left a power vacuum which allowed previously suppressed powers to rise. One of these powers was The Emperor. A long-lived super human, who united the warring barbarians of Earth and secured the alliance of Mars, a high tech world.

Together they were able to create and supply armies which could spread across the galaxy under his name, quashing other powers before they were really able to gain momentum and ostensibly uniting mankind.

One of these other powers that had been incubating during the time of the Eldar was the Chaos Gods. They made a gambit where by manipulating a few key figures they were able to once again become galactic powerhouses.

Under their influence, the nascent imperium fell into civil war. The Imperium suffered a brain-drain as many of the best and brightest defected. The bitterest fighting was at the heart of the empire; Mars and Terra. Entire planets were wasted, and these twin crown jewels of the imperium were no exception. Forbidden technologies scoured the surface of Mars, corrupting the libraries and production facilities (as on many other worlds). On Terra the uniting figure and architect of the Imperium was deposed, becoming little more than a figurehead. Internal political problems meant the Imperium had to significantly weaken itself in order to prevent self destruction.

After the initial flashpoint was resolved the war went ignored. The leaders of the Imperium believed the galaxy was theirs and bickering amongst themselves in a power-grab.This negligence allowed the civil war to continue, over 10 thousand years of insurrection, propaganda and defection sapping the strength of the Imperium. New factions were allowed to gain a foothold unchecked. New wars tore through the Imperium again, planets were razed. Technology and resources of those planets either lost or working against the imperium in enemy hands.

The imperium went from a technological production powerhouse, gaining production facilities and power in exchange for expending resources on war (Great Crusade) with a good return on investment. The Imperium became a weakened coalition with severe political, logistical and production problems; it was now expending resources on losing facilities and power (40k). This was exacerbated by the fact that it's key resources (i.e. Mars and the Forge Worlds) were now far weaker than they had been before the Imperium came along and it's enemies were all growing in power.

I don't think maladministration is quite the word.

The way knowledge was kept and transferred meant the losses of the Horus Heresy hugely regressed technologically advanced worlds; tech savants didn't write dummies guides, instead jealously guarding their own knowlege. When these died or defected their knowledge was lost or worse.

The weapons used in the Horus Heresy permanently corrupted data and machinery, that would now try to kill you.

These two factors meant things simply could not be repaired or rebuilt.

Economically the Great Crusade was based on growth; spend a moderate amount of resources (war) to capture a vast amount of resources (planets, ships, tech, etc).

There were not an infinite amount of valuable planets so this model was not sustainable.

In 40k huge resources are spent on protecting planets that have been bled dry by millennia of industry, everything has to be imported and the only viable export of these planets is the commodity of manpower.

Basically preHH investments were profitable. post HH they are sunk costs or cutting losses.