United Federation of Planets: Background and History

(Data graciously provided by The Trekker - Officer's Bible.)

The history, layout, and current events of the Federation are extremely important for any StarFleet officer to both be aware of, and know well. This course will give a background of the UFoP, leading up to current events.

Introduction

A vast political alliance of over 150 member worlds, the UFoP dominates the Alpha Quadrant in citizens, economy, territory, and technology. Founded in 2161, the combined might of the Federation has maintained law and peace across eight thousand light years. The Federation Council meets twice a year in San Fransico, Earth.

Each of the 150 member worlds sends one delegation to the Council, and each world can cast one vote when the Council is in session. The President, whose offices are located in Paris on Earth, is elected for a four year term. The chief administrator of the coucil is elected biannually. The Coucil passes important legislation and votes on significant policy decisions, such as an important interstellar trade agreement.

The Security Council is composed of a representative from each of the five founding worlds, plus five other members. The eleventh member of the Security Council is the Commander in Chief of the Starfleet. The Council is tasked with overseeing the protection of the Federation, and is responsible for investigating and pre-approving non-member applications for membership to the Federation. The Secretariat of the Federation is the civil service branch. Each member of the Secretariat is responsible for reporting on their member world's situation to the Council. The Economic and Social Council of the Federation is tasked with investigation of planetary trade disputes, regulating market movements and trade, and investigating and maintaining member planet's standard of living. The Trusteeship Council is extremely important in that it is responsible for monitoring the status and growth of worlds protected by the Prime Directive.

The Federation Supreme Court is the highest judiciary in Federation space. The Court is composed of one hundred and one magistrates, from member worlds of the UFOP. The Federation Code of Justice guarantees the freedom of all beings, as outlined by the Constitution of the Unifed Federation of Planets.

The day to day administration of the Federation is delegated to a bureaucratic system of agencies and bureaus. These include, but are not limited to:

The Federation Food and Drug Agency
The Federation Transportation Regulatory Agency
The Federation Central Bank
The Federation Commercial Development Agency
The Federation Health Agency
The Federation Internal Revenue Service
The Federation Central Employment Agency
The Federation Diplomatic Corps
The Federation StarFleet
The Federation Archaeology Council
The Federation Astronomical Committee
The Federation Astrophysical Survey
The Federation Science Coucil
The Federation Communications Agency
The Federation Naval Patrol
The Federation News Service
The Federation Department of Temporal Investigations
The Federation Penal and Rehabilation Department

Cultural and Historical Overview

(Article written by Varaan. Background from The Price of Freedom: The United Federation of Planets Sourcebook and Star Trek Star Charts.)

The roots of the Federation intertwine deeply throughout the histories of the five founding members. Alpha Centauri, Andoria, Tellar, Vulcan and Earth all survived dark pasts when their civilizations teetered on the edge of annihilation. All five races overcame these threats to their existence, each race finding its own way to defeat it particular demons. The lessons of these times brought each race to an understanding of unity and helped forge the Federation into an institution that protects the fundamental rights of all beings and works to promote peace throughout the galaxy.

Alpha Centauri had to survive genetically created viruses that ran out of control, produced by rival city-states. Eventually they found a cure, and their scientific pursuits led them to perfect the science of terraforming. The Andorian culture suffered massive casualties for centuries from clan-war after clan-war. The institution of ritual combat to settle differences between the clans saved Andorian civilization, and Andorians hold their rituals sacred to this day. Tellarites attempted to force engineered social and economical systems on their people trying to homogenize it, usually violently. A global refusal paved the way for a unified government who would not let national allegiances get in the way of free speech, free debate, and free exchange of information.

The early history of Vulcan was violent and destructive, fueled by uncontrollable emotion. After centuries of intense fighting, the brilliant mentalist Surak developed a vital philosophy of logic, which would control the strong Vulcan emotions. His teachings took hold and brought about the Time of Awakening. It is believed that the Romulans may have broken from the Vulcans at this time rather than accept Surak’s doctrines.

The nations of Earth fluctuated between disastrous world wars and ever-more-widespread world governments for three centuries. The “Seven Years” and Napoleonic Wars (1754-1815) led to the Concert of Europe, World War I (1914-1918) led to the League of Nations, and World War II (1939-1945) led to the United Nations. Tiring of the ineffectual UN, a group of fanatical human scientists created a genetically altered master race in an attempt to forcibly impose world peace. The most infamous of these “supermen,” Khan Noonian Singh, seized power in Asia in 1992 and used brilliant diplomatic and military strategy to conquer much of the developing world.

As he amassed an empire controlling almost a quarter of the Earth, Khan played politics, manipulating the world powers into appeasement strategies, while he demanded the reverence and worship of citizens of his empire. Forty other nations fell under the domination of Khan’s fellow “supermen,” but the United Nations coordinated efforts to stop the genetically altered conquerors. Cooperation between the unconquered countries of Earth, combined with infighting among Khan and the other “supermen” led to a slow, but inevitable defeat of the “supermen.” Khan and his followers fled into exile using a DY-100 sleeper ship, the SS Botany Bay.

The Eugenics Wars were the turning point. Khan’s war had so seriously damaged the world economy and ecology that no nation felt secure enough to support the New United Nations. Even the relatively rich and free United States suffered, both from domestic unrest and from economic decline. Colonel Green, an ambitious American soldier, attempted to launch a coup to restore American greatness after losing the 2052 Presidential election. Green favored exterminating the unfit and excess population, and historians credit Green or his followers with launching the volley of nuclear and biological weapons that started World War III in 2053.

Although the European nations originally stood as one against Green, after suffering devastating attacks several of the allies turned against each other. Bombs tore apart many European capitals. Destruction of trade routes left millions starving. Some accounts tell of cannibalism in heavily populated areas. Nationalist groups slaughtered minorities en masse in these areas. Revolution caught fire throughout Europe as some fought desperately to bring back a united Europe.

For obvious reasons, few records survive from these dark days. The war was over almost before it began, since nations simply collapsed into near-complete anarchy. Portions of the United States, East Asia and Europe survived, but the nuclear winter and economic devastation hit even these relatively lucky regions hard. Famines, plagues, and riots killed billions. Civilization was knocked back to seventeenth-century levels in even the most prosperous regions, and almost to Stone Age everywhere else. Only isolated groups of scientists and experimenters survived the chaos of the middle 21st century.

One such was Zefram Cochrane, who became the first human to break the light barrier with his ship, the Phoenix, in 2063. His flight alone might have restored hope across the globe, but when a Vulcan scout ship detected the Phoenix’s warp signature, that first contact with Cochrane ushered in a new era on Earth. First the Vulcans and then the Centaurans worked to save humanity from its wreckage. Although the road to unity was difficult, no government would willingly risk both its newfound interstellar allies and the future of the planet for another war.

In 2113, the European Hegemony and the restored United States of America merged as the United Earth Republic. The popular enthusiasm for unity swayed the South American Union and the Eastern Coalition, who joined by 2130 rather than be overthrown by their own people. Australia, the final holdout, joined United Earth in 2150.

Although each of the five founding members overcame its conflicts in its own manner, they all gained an appreciation of the same ideals and concepts. Each world had fallen to the edge of self-destruction and pulled itself back from the brink. These ideals would see their ultimate expression in the founding of the United Federation of Planets (UFoP). However, before the five worlds could join in the Federation, they had to venture into space alone.

The Centaurans had the least experience with spaceflight, having only traveled to their next closest in-system neighbor a mere hundred years before they encountered Earth’s starships. The Andorians developed spaceflight around the Earth year 1800. Ranx, the first Tellarite to design, build, and fly a rocket ship, did so in Earth year 1867. The Vulcans achieved spaceflight in their very distant past. The Romulans are believed to have exiled themselves from Vulcan over two thousand years ago, supporting the theory of ancient Vulcan interstellar travel.

Humans have dreamed about the wonders of space since their eyes first gazed up into the heavens. They built temples aligned to celestial movements and saw ancient gods in the patterns of the stars. For four centuries, humans have had the power of spaceflight, and their connection to the stars lifted them out of the dark nightmare of World War III.

The Eugenics War started a new space race as the genetically altered conquerors pushed the envelope of spaceflight technology. Khan Noonian Singh was successful in constructing a DY-100 sleeper ship, the Botany Bay, which he and his compatriots used to flee Earth when they were overthrown in 1996. The new space race survived the Eugenics Wars. Unmanned spacecraft, including Voyager 6 and the Nomad space probe, and manned missions, such as Shaun Geoffrey Christopher’s pioneering flight to Saturn, continued sporadically until World War III.

When World War III began, spaceflight was all but forgotten. As the devastation and loss of life mounted, many lost hope that humanity could preserve its own civilization, much less reach for the stars. Zefram Cochrane’s first contact with the Vulcans turned this defeatism into renewed hope. All nations worked together to launch new warp ships. The Valiant was only one of the early ships that vanished during this dangerous, mysterious period. The Cochrane, however, discovered another civilization on Alpha Centauri IV. When the Centaurans and Vulcans inspired Earth’s nations to unite, the United Earth Republic established a United Earth Space Probe Agency to continue interstellar exploration.

UESPA ships encountered the Andorians and followed the Centaurans to Tellar, and their resourceful crews made fast alliances with these newly discovered races. Earth founded colonies and expanded its influence across space; many human groups dissatisfied with the United Earth left to found their own, more isolated, colonies as well. When Earth encountered the Romulans in 2156, she commanded the respect of her allies and had the most powerful fleet of any Federation founding member. The dangers faced by Earth forces made the people of Earth realize how important their interstellar allies were to human destiny, and, before the war ended, politicians were carefully considering the merits of a galactic government.

In 2156 United Earth forces fought in their first interstellar conflict against the Romulan Star Empire. Vessels armed with atomic weapons dueled in space, mostly in empty systems between the Romulan and Earth borders. No two combatants ever came face to face in the four years of the war. Both Earth and the Romulans suffered terrible losses in the initial stages.

Earth’s warp engines proved to be a tactical advantage over the Romulans’ one-way primitive quantum singularity drives. In addition, Earth’s allies provided valuable support. After the Romulans suffered a humiliating defeat four years after the war had begun, both sides negotiated a peace over subspace radio. Like the war, the peace was conducted by remote control. The Romulans agreed to the Treaty of Cheron in 2160, which ended hostilities and established the Romulan Neutral Zone, violation of which would be considered an act of war. At the end of the Romulan war neither side had yet seen its opponents.

The Earth-Romulan War’s lasting impact was to remind Earth and her allies of the dangers that space could hold. Earth added defensive protocols to her exploration guidelines. The allied planets held numerous meetings and conferences to work out defensive measures in case of another encounter with hostile aliens. Every race was uncomfortably aware that although it was no longer in danger of destroying itself, it was still in danger of destruction by others.

The five founding members of the Federation spent all of 2160 hammering out the Article of Federation. The Articles of Federation established an economic structure as well as a government, and, most importantly, they protected the rights of every Federation citizen. They were a testament to peace and the vision of all five founding worlds. Once the Terran Conventions of 2160 ended, the only step left for incorporation was ratification of the Articles by the member planets.

Each of the five founding member worlds had their own reaction to the Articles. Tellar, Alpha Centauri and Vulcan all agreed rather quickly. Political factions dueling on Andoria slowed the process somewhat, but eventually they agreed as well. Earth was the last to agree, and isolationist groups that did not want it took this opportunity to leave Earth. But finally, all agreed and met in Paris and San Francisco for a signing ceremony.

Unlike the Terran Conferences, this meeting was a smooth and festive occasion. Delegations from five worlds signed the Articles of Federation on February 22, 2161, in the San Francisco Opera House, officially ratifying them as the Constitution of the United Federation of Planets. The anniversary is still celebrated as Federation Day throughout the UFoP. The Federation Council unanimously elected Earth’s Mark Wells its first President, and the United Federation of Planets was born.

In its first burst of exploration, Starfleet discovered dozens of new worlds and new civilizations. Many of them shared the ideals of the UFoP and petitioned for membership. Within the first decade, the founding members were outnumbered on the Federation Council. Each new member world contributed its technology and culture towards strengthening the Federation. By the end of the 22nd century, almost fifty worlds belonged to the UFoP. Membership would continue to grow over the next century, until the modern figure of over 150 members was reached.

The 23rd century saw the Federation’s first conflicts with the Klingons. The Federation and Klingons fought a series of running battles from 2223 to 2242. The complete failure of standard Starfleet procedure in the Qo’noS contact led to the adoption of the Prime Directive. The majority of this century was a time of incredible exploration. Aside from a pinpick raid by the Romulans in 2266, brushes with the Gorn in 2267 and the Tholians in 2268, and similar brief skirmishes such as those with the Breen in the 2280’s, it was also a time of relative peace and vastly increasing prosperity and technological progress. The Organian Peace Treaty of 2267 laid the groundwork for the Khitomer Accords of 2293, ushering in a new era of cooperation between the Federation and the Klingons. New races, most notably the Betazoids in 2294 and the Bolians in 2320, joined the UFoP.

The 24th century has seen a return to the crises of the early 23rd. Starfleet has fought at least three major actions: the Cardassian Wars between 2347 and 2370, a war with the Tholians between 2353 and 2360, and a nearly fatal Borg incursion in 2367. The UFoP has also had to deal with a Romulan-Klingon border war from 2344 to 2352, a Klingon civil war in 2367-68, and an outbreak of smuggling and piracy that resulted in first contact with the Ferengi in 2364.

Finally, tensions with the Romulans had risen to new heights with incidents throughout the 2360’s. Starfleet vessels and their crews hold the line, however, and the dream of the Federation remains pure and strong even after more than two centuries. Through it all, Starfleet and the UFoP weathered these threats by holding dear to its guiding principles of peace, honesty and virtue. Yet the Federation would face new challenges in the years to come, putting its capabilities and resolve to perhaps the greatest test of all.

Once again, in 2373, the Borg would arrive to attack Earth, taking the battle to Earth’s past. By traveling back in time, the Borg hoped to prevent Zefram Cochrane’s first warp flight, which resulted in first contact with the Vulcans. Thus preventing the alliance of worlds that would become the United Federation of Planets would have fundamentally erased all resistance to the Borg in the 24th century. Yet as it had so many times before, the crew of the USS Enterprise saved the day. But a new menace, from an unexpected quarter, did more to threaten the existence of the Federation – and the entire Alpha Quadrant – than any previous adversary.

The Cardassian occupation of Bajor was coming to an end, which pleased the Bajorans but infuriated most Cardassians. The Bajoran Resistance movement was no longer needed, but the Maquis, a group of dissident Federation citizens not happy with the concessions the Federation made in their treaty with the Cardassians, continued to operate in the Bajor Sector. The Federation was invited by the Bajorans to help rebuild their planet after the occupation.

The discovery of a stable wormhole in the Denorios Belt in the Bajoran system was heralded as an opportunity to explore the distant Gamma Quadrant, and foster good will with whatever new civilizations were encountered. Quickly, rumors of the Dominion, a mysterious empire of ruthless shapechangers on the other side of the Bajoran wormhole, began to surface. By 2370, Dominion soldiers attacked and destroyed the USS Odyssey, to punctuate demands that the Federation cease all traffic through the wormhole. Exploration continued, but the situation deteriorated. In 2371, the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager was sent to track down a Maquis resistance cell and disappeared in the Badlands, a region of space populated by plasma storms.

The civilian-led government on Cardassia fell to military uprising, leading to the rise of the Central Command, and an eventual alliance with the Dominion. The Klingons, suspicious of Dominion involvement, attacked the Cardassian Union, and withdrew from their alliance with the Federation in 2372 after the UFoP failed to support the move. Events culminated in a Dominion declaration of war on the Federation in 2373, as enemy ships attacked both colonies and member worlds. The Romulans remained behind their borders, content to remain uninvolved rather than react to this threat to the entire quadrant. In fact, they signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion.

Starfleet was forced to pull out of Deep Space 9 and the Bajoran system late in 2373 when Dominion forces, aided by their Cardassian allies, took control of the former Cardassian mining station. Dominion reinforcements were halted in the Gamma Quadrant, however, by the field of self-replicating mines left by Starfleet at the wormhole’s exit in the Alpha Quadrant. At the urging of the Bajoran emissary, the Bajorans signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion and were allowed to stay on board. The Klingons, discovering a member of their inner circle was actually a Dominion shapechanger, renewed the Khitomer Accords and were once again allied with the Federation.

In 2374 the Allied forces launched an attack on Dominion forces in the Bajoran system. Just as it looked as if the allies had won, the Dominion finally succeeded in removing the minefield. But as the tide of war shifted with a Dominion fleet of almost 3000 ships coming to reinforce the Dominions position, the Prophets, a race of non-linear beings inhabiting the wormhole, destroyed the relief fleet, and the tide of war turned again, towards the success of the allies.

The Dominion forces retreated to Cardassian space and continued their heavy assault on the allies. Betazed, a Federation member world, was even conquered and occupied by Dominion forces. The Romulans were tricked into joining the allies against the Dominion-Cardassian forces. But during an allied invasion of Cardassian space, the wormhole was sealed by an ancient Bajoran evil, and the attacks faltered.

2375 saw the Bajorans uncover Romulan plots to eventually attack Bajor. A joint Bajoran-Starfleet force stopped the Romulans. When the Emissary reopened the Bajoran wormhole, the allies’ strength seemed to grow again. The numerous victories scored were short lived in celebration as the Dominion revealed new allies of her own, the Breen. The Breen energy weapons were devastating Starfleet vessels, and the Klingons, whose vessels seemed to be immune, could not hold off the Dominion by themselves. The Breen were even able to attack Earth and cause severe damage to Starfleet Headquarters.

Soon, the Federation solved the Breen weapon problem and, aided by the new Cardassian leader who saw his people as nothing more than Dominion puppets, they were able to shift the tide of war back into their favor. An assault on Cardassia Prime itself was successful and the Dominion leader was captured. Through peaceful and honorable means, the Dominion leader was persuaded to surrender and the war was over, though Starfleet lost one of its tactical leaders in the process, the same tactician that was the Bajoran Emissary, Captain Benjamin Sisko.

The Alpha and Beta Quadrants could now return to relative peace and begin a rebuilding process. But the Delta Quadrant had been experiencing something it had never known before. In 2371 when the USS Voyager had disappeared, it had been transported 70,000 light years to the far side of the Milky Way galaxy. The captain and crew decided to attempt the long journey home, regardless of the dangers or length of time it would take, almost 70 years. During its seven-year odyssey of exploration, the USS Voyager visited more worlds and made more first contacts than any other Federation vessel. In 2371 they managed to travel 300 light years, while fighting off enemy races such as the Kazon and the Vidiians. In 2372 they traveled 438 light years, lost and retook Voyager from the Kazons, and disarmed a Cardassian dreadnought missile that had also been pulled into the Delta Quadrant.

2373 saw Voyager travel another 438 light years through Swarm space and across the Nekrit Expanse, right to the front door of the Borg Collective.

In 2374 they made a temporary alliance with the Borg out of mutual fear and distrust of Species 8472. The Borg helped them travel 9,500 light years through their space in return for technological aid in sealing the rift between our dimension and Species 8472’s Fluidic Space. Once free of the Borg, Voyager’s captain decided to keep their once-human Borg liaison on board as a member of the crew in an attempt to return her to her humanity. Borrowing slipstream technology, Voyager was able to travel an additional 300 light years, then had 438 light years of enemies to face such as the Krenim, the B’omar, and the Hirogen. Using a Hirogen communications relay system, Voyager was able to contact Starfleet to let them know they were still alive and on their way home. In all Voyager traveled 10,238 light years in 2374, but this was not a record.

Voyager traveled a total of 32,938 light years in 2375. After traveling through a starless region known as the Void, Voyager encountered the Malon and used their vortex to travel 2,500 light years. They again ran into Species 8472, this time masquerading as humanoid Starfleet officers. They were planning an invasion of the Federation until Voyager diplomatically dissuaded them. Another run at slipstream technology propelled Voyager 10,000 light years to the edge of the Devore Imperium. Once through Devore space, they managed to use a Borg transwarp conduit to travel 20,000 light years, eventually meeting up with the USS Equinox, another Starfleet vessel that had been trapped in the Delta Quadrant and was trying to get home. The Equinox was destroyed, however, and what was left of the crew joined Voyager.

Voyager traveled another 1,238 light years in 2376. They made contact with the Hierarchy, and used a Vaadwaur subspace corridor to shave 200 light years off their travels. They discovered a particle fountain, and an alien scientist allowed them to use his graviton catapult to travel another 600 light years.

In 2377 Voyager entered their Delta Flyer shuttle in the Antarian Trans-stellar Rally and were able to stop alien races from going to war again. They traveled past Hirogen and Hierarchy space, and had a final showdown with the Borg Queen. Voyager managed to use a Borg Transwarp Hub to travel the remaining distance to Federation space and home.

The most notable and recent event to enter the history books involved an upstart clone of Captain Jean-luc Picard, determined to destroy Earth through the use of a massively powerful biological weapon. After having successfully carried out a political coup of the Romulan government, the clone was eventually defeated by the crew of the Enterprise-E, though not before one of their most valuable crewmembers was lost, Commander Data.

Beyond the nearly-avoided Romulan-Reman incursion, recent years have been relatively quiet for the Federation, as they continue their mission of peace and exploration, while healing the wounds inflicted by the Dominion war. The wary new peace between the Romulans and Federation is encouraging, but still in its beginning stages. As the Federation continues to expand its borders towards the unknown, it is critical that she prepares herself for the multitude of dangers that await. Only time will tell what the future holds for the Federation and its members.