The author based the Foundation books on the history of the European Middle Ages, which some view as a thousand-year pause in the progress of European civilization that began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE and continued until Florentine and Venetian traders and thinkers of the 1400s re-discovered the ancient books and launched a rebirth of Roman and Greek arts and sciences. This Renaissance stimulated the massive growth of worldwide technology and culture that continues to this day.

Author Asimov wondered what might have happened if, instead of standing by helplessly, wise Roman leaders had managed to nurture the old arts and sciences after their empire’s collapse. He postulated the sorts of political, military, or other strategies that might have been involved—how roads, aqueducts, buildings, and other infrastructure might have been maintained. Asimov devised the story of an analogous Foundation that in the future would harness religious belief and interstellar high-tech trade to maintain relatively high levels of technical sophistication.

After Rome collapsed, books filled with ancient lore were unceremoniously piled into monastic libraries, where they gathered dust for ten centuries. For his futuristic empire, the author suggests an Encyclopedia Galactica that collects all the knowledge available within the galaxy and preserves it, with copies planted on millions of outlying worlds.