You're in the realm of politics, but politics is still not the front-and-centre focus of your story. You're not telling a political history; but you need to ref

You're in the realm of politics, but politics is still not the front-and-centre focus of your story. You're not telling a political history; but you need to reference politics in order to explain the timeline, or situations of when one of several equally good solutions "won" and such. It is still a history of the technology and not political history.