United Federation of Planets
In the fictional Star Trek universe, the United Federation of Planets is a federation of more than 150 member planets and thousands of colonies.Loosely based on the United Nations, the Federation stresses the values of peace and cooperation. One of their most important precepts is the Prime Directive. It is led by the Federation President. Earth and Vulcan were founding members of the Federation, but founding members may also include the planets of Alpha Centauri and Andor, and the home planet of the Tellarites. Starfleet is the military and exploration corps of the Federation.
The Federation is opposed at various times by the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Cardassians, the Borg, and the Dominion.
Warning: Plot details follow.
Note: this page combines the timelines of the various Star Trek series, including retcons that construct periods of Star Trek future history not mentioned in the first series. It also contains speculation from fans and backstage sources that are not canon.
The Federation mainly evolved from Earth history and in 2043 the Third World War (between the United States of America and a successor state of the USSR called the Eastern Coalition) erupted. It lasted for ten years and 600 million people perished in the nuclear war. In 2053 a uneasy truce was signed. Around this time Zefram Cochrane began his construction of the first warp capable vessel of humanity, the Phoenix.
On April 5 2063 at 11:15 Cochrane made humanity's first warp flight.
His warp signatures were detected by a Vulcan survey ship which landed in the evening and made First Contact with humanity. The Vulcans repaired the nuclear damage done to Earth and Zefram Cochrane inaugurated an era of peace in which poverty and disease would become non-existent. In the years after 2063 most of Earth's remaining states were disbanded. Cochrane's warp design was applied to all Earth spacecraft and human colonies were formed at Mars and beyond.
Exploration of space gradually continued and in 2150 Earth was finally united when Australia surrendered its independence. In 2151, an Earth organization known as Starfleet Command launched an exploratory vessel NX-01 Enterprise, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
A multi-species race from the Delphic Expanse known as the Xindi sent a probe to attack Earth in 2153 after being informed that they would supposedly be destroyed by humanity in the 26th Century. After being informed by the Suliban that the Xindi were working on a probe designed to destroy Earth completely, the NX-01 Enterprise was sent to find out more about the probe and to stop its construction. The probe unfortunately made it to Earth and was just about to finish up humanity when the Vulcans and the Andorians finally put aside their differences and destroyed the weapon. This might not have happened if the Enterprise NX-01 had not sent out a distress call to them, or if the Xindi had not launched an unprovoked attack on both Vulcan and Andorian fleets, considering them a threat to the weapon. The conclusion of the human-Xindi conflict improved relations between Earth and Vulcan and Andoria and after some coercing convinced the Xindi that humanity was not the "ruthless alien species" that they thought.
In 2158 the USS Balboa encountered the xenophobic Romulans and humanity's first interstellar war followed. The Romulans eventually took the offensive, attacking numerous human colonies and ultimately leveling half of Starfleet Headquarters on Earth, killing Admiral Forrest. Although on the brink of victory, the Romulan Star Empire suffered its greatest defeat ever in the Battle of Cheron in 2160. In ultimate retaliation of the Romulans' attack on Earth, the NX-01 Enterprise and several other vessels went into battle with several Romulan battleships over the Romulan homeworld Romulus. Out of the 15 Romulan ships, 14 were destroyed and the other one was disabled, with the death of the Romulan admiral as well. The Yorktown also went to the surface of Romulus and leveled a lot of the capital city of Cheron, killing over 50,000 Romulans. The Romulans soon afterwards signed a peace treaty establishing the Romulan Neutral Zone.
In 2345 the Romulan Star Empire launched an assault on the Klingon outpost at Narendra III but the attack was thwarted by the USS Enterprise-C under the command of Captain Rachel Garrett (in an alternate timeline none of this happened and this had unforeseen consequences). Although the Enterprise-C was lost with all hands the Klingons saw its destruction to save them as a brave and honourable deed and relations were significantly improved.
In 2365, the Federation had first formal contact with the Borg (previous accounts of the Borg were sketchy at best), who soon later threatened the existence of the Federation, at the Battle of Wolf 359. Other events of this era include the Klingon Civil War, the meeting of Q, and various time travel incidents.
But some Federation colonists were opposed to the agreement and formed the Maquis, a rebel movement who resisted the Cardassians in the area.
In 2375, a law was passed through the Federation Council that allowed it to help the Son'a to move 600 Ba'ku from their world in the Briar Patch in order to process the energy in the planet's rings that extended people's lives. Again, the Enterprise-E came to the rescue and stopped the evacuation of the Bak'u and prevented the energy from being taken away. After some time, hostilites diminished and the Son'a and Bak'u came to live together as they used to.
In 2379, a Reman Preator named Shinzon took over the Romulan Senate on Romulus in an attempt to falsify an idea to have peace talks between the empire and the United Federation of Planets. As it turned out, it was a trick by Shinzon to lure Picard into Romulan space so that he could transfuse Picard's DNA into himself (Shinzon was a Romulan-grown clone of Picard). When Shinzon's idea of attacking Earth was uncovered, the Enterprise-E eventually engaged in battle with Shinzon's Scimitar in order to stop him. Commander Data was lost when he fired a phaser into the Scimitar's thaleron chamber, to save the Enterprise-E. This opened up real peace talks between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire.
By the 29th Century, the Federation explores time as it once did space.
By the 31st century, indications are that the Federation no longer exists. One location on Earth had a statue in its honor in the "Shockwave" episode of Star Trek Enterprise, although this may simply be an alternate timeline.
Federation History
Pre-Federation history
Although no single individual is responsible for the foundation of the United Federation of Planets, Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of the warp drive is indirectly responsible for the event. Early Federation period
On August 12 2161, in a bar in France, the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and Earth founded the United Federation of Planets, an organization based on exploration and interstellar peace. In 2218 the first major first contact with another extra-terrestrial race, the Klingons, was made. The first contact was unsuccessful and a century-long war erupted. In the 2260s the actions of James T. Kirk, the captain of the Starship Enterprise helped the Federation gain the upper hand. In 2265 the Organian Peace Treaty was signed which ended major engagements, but the two intergalactic powers remained in a state of cold war. In 2293 the moon Praxis, orbiting the Klingon homeworld Qo'noS, exploded destroying the Empire's economy and military capacity. Chancellor Gorkon initiated peace talks but en route to the conference he was assassinated by Klingons opposed to the peace process. His daughter Azetbur continued the conference against all odds, and as a result the Khitomer Accords were signed effectively ending the war.Early-24th century history
The Khitomer Accords significantly reduced the tensions between the Klingon Empire and the Federation and two decades of relative peace followed.
But in 2311 the Tomed Incident occurred in which thousands of Starfleet personnel died and Romulan outposts disappeared. The unrest was ended by the Treaty of Algeron which re-affirmed the Neutral Zone and prohibited Federation development of cloaking technology. From the 2320's onward the development of the Ambassador class triggered a new period of Federation exploration. Large parts of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant were charted.Mid-24th century history
In 2363, the Federation's finest flagship, Galaxy class USS Enterprise-D was launched under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. They continued the fine tradition of its predecessors to go boldly where no one has gone before.The Cardassian War
Around the same time the Federation made contact with a race called the Cardassians. There were no diplomatic problems until the Federation found out the Cardassians had brutally enslaved the Bajorans. Disputes over territory arose and in 2347 war was declared by the Cardassians. The war was lengthy and bloody, but the Federation being technologically superior won the war and in 2366 the Demilitarized Zone was established between the empires. Because of this, some Federation and Cardassian colonies were situated in each others territory, therefore an agreement was reached for the transfer of those colonies. Dominion War
In 2373, the Federation and Klingon Empire engaged in war with the Dominion and the Cardassians. Deep Space Nine, the Cardassian fortress reconfigured for Federation use, was one of the most pivotal locations for the war. In 2375, the war had included the Romulans and the Breen, and in a turning point for the quadrant, the Cardassians turned on their Dominion rulers, assisting the Federation Alliance to win the war against the Dominion.Peace in our time?
In 2374, the Borg launched a second ship to try to assimilate Earth but again were thwarted by humanity. However, the Borg tried a last ditch plan and went back in time to 2053 in the hopes of preventing Cochrane's warp flight and assimilate humanity in the past. In the end, however, the Enterprise-E prevented this sabotage and was able to keep the future as it was.Possible future
Prominent in some possible timelines is the Temporal Cold War, waged on a number of fronts throughout time including the 28th and 31st centuries.External Links