Well, I've been watching the entire game of redguard on Toutube and started thinking (I know, you're shocked) that Morrowind kept its own culture by signing the Armistice, and Hammerfell kept it by kicking Septim's ever-living ass back to Skyrim, but what other cultures have escaped full Imperialization and how? I would think that Summerset, having joined the Empire because Septim had Numidium, maybe managed to keep a good amount even if the national pride was mortally wounded by being subjugated by lowly humans. Black marsh is Black marsh, of course, and if Bruma is any indication Imperializing Nords is like teaching Bears to read. Go ahead and try, but you'll probably just fail and get killed. And Orcs only just joined the Empire, and I believe Orsinium, as a city-state type thing, maintains the ancient warrior culture of the Orcs.

But are there any concrete sources to say how Imperialized each place is? Really so far all I have is the above guesses.

The 3rd PGE, I guess.

Personally, I suspect that there are about 400 Imperials in all of Summerset. Enough to maintain a consulate and a few trade interests.

You can't imperialize a cat whose staple crop is illegal everywhere else, we saw how development projects in Valenwood fail in Decumus Scotti's story. The Warp in the West made High Rock manageable politically, at least.

The issue being is that, theoretically, the third PGE is an Imperial book with Imperial intrests and propoganda. Not to mention that having Morrowind keep its cuklture instead of ecoming Imperialist was considered odd.

I always figured High Rock to be the most Imperial outside Cyrodiil. I'm not quite sure why.

Perhaps because they are one of the few people who actually welcomed the Empire.

The orcs are an interesting example of a people who seem to be attempting to move from barbarism (or at least a barbaric reputation) into a nation, participating in the Empire but trying to put a new interpretation on Malacath/Trinimac.

The provinces seem to be like the tribes that the Romans attempted to conquer or turn into auxiliaries: even those that hate the Imperials end up influenced by their language and mores.

Black Marsh has almost no Imperial presence, even in the major cities, and is largely unexplored swamps that are inaccessible to Imperial settlers.

Moreso, their pantheons are almost completely identical

And they look most like imperials

So?

That doesn't usually affect much (although it has an impact). It's largely irrelevant.

Plus wasn't High Rock part of the original Cyrodiilic Empire? Y'know, the one in the First Era with the Remans. For some reason I'm thinking it was. Either way, there are ties between the Bretons and the Cyrodiils going waaaaaaay back. Plus they were pretty much the most easily crushed by Tiber Septim. At least the rest of them sort of put up something vaguely resembling a unified resistance.
Of course, the fact that the kingdoms would never be able to put up a unified anything in their lives is kind of what makes the Bretons a bit more difficult to absorb into the Empire in the first place. Y'know, the entire plot of Daggerfall and everything.

Black Marsh seems to be the least Imperialized. I get the impression from a few books from Oblivion and some Argonian in Morrowind that the Imperials are having a hard time trying to do so.

Really, it seems that the that we know Empire in the TES games is not much of an Empire. All the non-human provinces seem to have extreme freedoms. Morrowind was aloud to wage small scale civil wars (house wars) and Elsweyr and Valenwood were always fighting. Blackmarsh and Summerset seemed largely devoid of Imperial presence. The human provinces were little better. No Province seems truley imperialized.

The Empire seems to just be there to collect taxes and better Cyrodiil.

This is the only way to have an empire that lasts any length of time. this is how the Romans operated and it worked for the most part. If the foreigners have more freedom, they're less likely to rebel.

Of course, but they are still resentful and will jump ship (even if its not open rebellion) as soon as possible; an action made easier by their increased freedom. No Elven or Beast province is going to stick with the Empire after Septim's death.

The Empire is outwardly able to offer a soft touch. They give the local rulers freedom, allow their clients to maintain much of their old traditions, and generally act as benevolent as they can. But beneath that they have things like the East Empire Company monopolizing the trade of the most vital resources, and the Blades moving in and making sure the Emperor knows exactly what is going on all the time. Not to mention Imperial forts and garrisons everywhere, which may not be able to crush a widespread rebellion, are at least able to keep up the appearance that the locals are under the Empire's thumb.

It's hard to say just how much of each province hates the Empire, but it's not all that helpless. And they do provide for the good of a lot of the general populace where they have influence (who are willing to play by the rules), so it's not hard for them to establish good relations (and thus authority) with the locals too.

Didn't they depopulate France before trying the whole autonomy thing?