We know what is there and the Empire claims it.
This might sometimes require hot pursuit, into space claimed by the Empire.
Earth, never having been claimed by the Fourth Empire, was a special case.
It was claimed by the Empire of Japan in 1861.
As telling testimony to the station's true worth, neither the Federation nor the Empire claimed it.
The Empire had claimed it and its neighbors for military reasons as well as for the usual gray justifications set in the realm of prestige.
The German Empire claimed the territory as the colony of Kamerun in 1884 and began a steady push inland.
The area remained under New Spain's control until September 28, 1821 when the first Mexican Empire claimed ownership.
The Empire also claims all of North America, but rules little of it politically aside from outposts scattered across the coasts.
The Remembrance and her companions sailed outside the three-mile limit the Empire of Mexico claimed, but not very far outside it.