FEDERATION History

United Federation of Planets

Founded in 2161 in the aftermath of the Earth-Romulan War, the Federation was an outgrowth of an alliance between several worlds, including Earth, Vulcan, Andor, Tellar and Alpha Centauri, among others. (TNG: "The Outcast"; ENT: "Zero Hour", "United", "Demons", "Terra Prime", "These Are the Voyages...")

Various dates have been given for the Federation's founding in 2161, including 8 May, 12 August and 11 October. Alternately, the predominant pre-canon assumption among fans was that the Federation was already in existence at the time of the Earth-Romulan war. For more information, see: Federation history.

Despite its peaceful nature and intentions, the Federation faced many conflicts over the years. Encounters with the Klingons in the 22nd and early 23rd centuries eventually led to the First Federation-Klingon War, followed by a cold war. Those "seventy years of unremitting hostility" came to an end in 2293, when the Federation gave aid to the Klingons followed the destruction of Praxis, their key energy facility. The Khitomer Conference that followed began the long process toward not only peace, but an alliance between the UFP and the Klingon Empire. The Klingons temporarily withdrew from that alliance in the 2370s, igniting the Second Federation-Klingon War, but peace was soon re-established. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Judgement", et. al; TOS: "Errand of Mercy"; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; TNG: "Heart of Glory", "Yesterday's Enterprise"; DS9: "The Way of the Warrior", "Apocalypse Rising", "In Purgatory's Shadow", "By Inferno's Light")

Conflicts between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire ebbed and flowed in the years following the Earth-Romulan War. After the Romulan Neutral Zone was established, the Empire retreated into its borders for nearly 100 years, only venturing out again to test the Federation in the 2260s. From that time on, while no protracted wars broke out, tensions ran high between the two powers. After the fall of the Klingon Neutral Zone, those tensions escalated, and almost surely would have erupted into war were it not for the disastrous Tomed Incident of 2311. After Tomed, the Romulans and Federation signed the Treaty of Algeron, and the Romulans again retreated within their own borders, isolating themselves until the destruction of outposts along the Neutral Zone drew them out again in 2364. (TOS: "Balance of Terror", "The Enterprise Incident", Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, TNG: "The Neutral Zone", "The Pegasus")

Smaller conflicts dogged the Federation in the 2340s through the 2360s, including wars with the Cardassians and the Tzenkethi, and the Galen Border Conflicts with the Talarian Republic. The Tholian Assembly was also a threat to the Federation during that period. (TNG: "The Wounded", "Suddenly Human", "The Icarus Factor"; DS9: "The Adversary", "Homefront")

In the mid-2360s, Starfleet made first contact with the greatest single threat they had ever faced: the Borg Collective, a race of cybernetic beings bent on the assimilation of all life in the galaxy. The first Borg incursion was only turned back after a failed defense at the Battle of Wolf 359, and the near assimilation of Earth in 2366-67. Defeated but not destroyed, the Collective would return to plague the Federation again and again, most notably in 2373 and the Battle of Sector 001. (TNG: "Q Who", "The Best of Both Worlds", "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", "Descent"; Star Trek: First Contact; VOY: "Scorpion", "Dark Frontier", "Endgame")

When the discovery of the Bajoran Wormhole in 2369 opened up travel to the distant Gamma Quadrant, it was only a matter of time before the Federation encountered the Dominion. First contact between the two powers came in 2370, and hostilities increased for several years while the Dominion's shape-shifting Founders manipulated various governments, until war broke out in 2373. The Dominion War not only threatened the Federation, but the entire Alpha Quadrant, and drew numerous galactic powers, both friend and former foe, into the Federation Alliance. Though it lasted only two years, the Dominion War was the most costly conflict the Federation had ever endured. Countless lives were lost and several key worlds were occupied before the Dominion offensive was repelled in 2375. (DS9: "The Jem'Hadar", "The Search, Part II", "The Die Is Cast", "Homefront", "Apocalypse Rising", "In Purgatory's Shadow", "By Inferno's Light", "Call to Arms")

Though the price of peace was heavy, especially to the Dominion's former ally Cardassia, the aftermath of the Dominion War saw the opportunity for the Federation to do what it did best, make friends out of old enemies. In addition to the goodwill to be gained from the Cardassian relief effort, the Federation hoped that it could maintain and improve relations with the Romulan Star Empire, perhaps coming to the same sort of détente as with the Klingons eighty some years before. (Star Trek Nemesis)