Interestingly, if Spock is speaking of the aggressive colonizing phase of the western society on Earth between 1500 and 1800, instead of a space colonization phase between 2060 and 2260, then perhaps he is making an exact analogy. Perhaps Vulcan, too, had a time when peoples from one part of the planet conquered peoples from other parts of the same planet?

Perhaps the ridgeheaded Vulcans were among the oppressed, and among the most aggressive of the Vulcan inhabitants? They could have opposed Surak as a racial group in addition to being a group tied together by philosophy. The 100-yr war could have been between flatheads and ridgeheads on Vulcan during "an aggressive, colonizing period", leading to a deep schism that ended in the departure of the ridgeheads and thus the birth of the Romulan race. Some flatheads would naturally go with them, and some ridgeheads would remain on Vulcan.

The caveat here is that a planet capable of starflight seems unlikely to be in a phase of dirtbound colonialism. Perhaps the 100-yr war resulted in the achieving of starflight, as our WWs gave us flight and spaceflight? Imagine large isolated desert communities developing the tech required to wage war with each other across distances - mere crusade-type mass movements of foot soldiers or mounted knights would be doomed to disappear amidst the sands, and mechanized troops would also have immense problems. Perhaps a major war could only be fought with the invention of advanced flight technologies, later leading to spaceflight?

Timo Saloniemi

And once self-sustenance is established, being surrounded is no problem. The troops of the surrounded party are always ideally deployed, whereas the surrounding opponent is spreading his nonoptimally. Cloakships can run the blockade in modern days, thanks to the fact that you have to be very close to a cloakship to spot it - similarly, ships of yore may have slipped out even without a cloak if the sensors of that era required similar proximity for reliable detection.

Total control of a single star system (especially a system the Romulans probably could choose carefully from a group of candidates, a luxury Humans or Klingons do not have) is IMHO sufficient basis for building a mighty starfleet and terrorizing the surrounding space. It's just a matter of the psychologigal makeup of the Romulans and the Klingons if the former consider a single system a "Star Empire", while the latter feel inferior if their Empire doesn't have the largest number of conquered planets in the galaxy.

As for canon-based arguments for and against:

-The fact that the RNZ is said to be monitored by a tachyon net in "Face of the Enemy" is either an oversimplification or then proof of a) incredible engineering prowess of the Federation or b) a relatively small RNZ.

-The "Redemption" blockade of the Romulan border would be simpler technically if RNZ was small. But Klingon space would have to physically border the RNZ for this episode to work. It is a bit problematic to assume that Feds and Klingons would both have a well-defined border next to this single star system. One would assume such a state of affairs would have required a big war in the past, and at least one specific mention in the episodes.

-The Gamma Hydra affair in "The Deadly Years" and STII could support either argument. GH would have to be located very close to the RNZ for a shortcut to SB10 to be necessary by pure coincidence. If GH was farther away than a couple of lightyears, then an incredible coincidence would be needed for SB10 to lie exactly on the line connecting GH and RNZ. But GH could indeed be a nearby system, a famous historical one even, so that it would feature in SF Academy simulations as the token "We are near the Neutral Zone" indicator. And the Zone in STII does look really small.

-A multi-system RNZ is quite unlikely if we really interpret the Zone to be a sphere 1 ly across. A single-system one isn't likely if the shell of the sphere is 1 ly thick. What is the exact reference in "The Defector"?

Then again, the TNG RNZ could be different from the TOS RNZ, perhaps renegotiated after the Romulans gained warp drive and stepped up their demands.

And the "Redemption" blockade was on the border between the Klingons and Romulans, right? That border could be much smaller than the one between the Feds and the Romulans.

The "Redemption" incident could have taken place in may locations:
1) In an actual region of space where the Romulan NZ touches Klingon territory
2) In a region of Klingon space that is nearest to the RNZ even if there is a narrow gap of unclaimed or UFP-held space in between
3) In UFP space just outside the RNZ, on the side that is facing the Klingons.

The most logical place to stop the Romulans would be 3), since then the Romulans would have the least chance of outflanking the blockade, and the Feds wouldn't have to leave their own space. But the dialogue implies the Feds did leave UFP space and went into Klingon space to effect the blockade. This implies the border between the RNZ and Klingon space is a narrow bottleneck area (with or without a gap between the two Empires) since such a tiny fleet could effectively create a blockade. Why would the Romulans use this bottleneck? Why not fly around in UFP or other non-Klingon space until they found a more vulnerable stretch of Klingon border?

Regarding "Redemption", Romulan cloaking technology is probably more advanced then that of the Klingons. The Romulans might have simply been taking the most direct route towards their destination on the assumption that the Klingons couldn't detect them if they tried, and the thought of the Federation sending ships into Klingon space to patrol the border might not have been considered.

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