The Federation - An historical overview

By Geoffrey Mandel

HUMAN HISTORY may be divided up into three periods: the ten or so millenia before the advent of space travel; the fifteen short but immensely crowed decades that witnessed the Eugenic Wars on Earth, the perfection of interstellar travel, the formation of the Federation, and the century of relative peace and prosperity since.This leads me to think that the historical curve we are following right now is presently in the process of flattening out into a sort of plateau – a golden age not only for us of Earth, but for the entire galaxy.

John Gill
"Patterns of History"

FEDERATION HISTORY is reckoned from 8 May 2127, when represenatatives of five planetary systems affixed their signatures and standards to a piece of paper declaring their commitment to each other and to certain common goals: a strong defense against invasion from outside, advancement of scientific knowledge and galactic exploration, regulation of Federation commerce, and – above all – protection of the individual rights and laws of the member beings. Although, out of necessity, a great portion of Federation resources and manpower was invested in its military force – the formidable Star Fleet – the original articles of the UFP are as sound today as when they were ratified almost a century and half ago. In unity we have found prosperity; in agreement, strength. Yet, as the founding systems of the UFP correctly determined, it was (and still is) necessary to preserve the basic differences among us: as the Vulcan philosophy of IDIC dictates, together our differences become greater than our similarities.

Although contemporary historical texts use the founding of the UFP as a starting point, it is often easier to understand a phenomenon by probing more deeply into its roots, thus appreciating the elements that gave birth to it. In this case we would find more appropriate place to begin some 27 years earlier. By 2100, Earth ships had made considerable progress in mapping and surveying near by star systems, and occasional long-range cruisers had voyaged as far as the next-spiral arm of the galaxy. Certainly, alien life forms were nothing strange to human space travelers – hundreds had been cataloged on almost every planet visited, although intelligent life was still something of a rarity. Twice, humans had contacted beings almost fanatical in their warlike attitudes: tha carniverous Kzinti who had stumbled across Sol system in 2050 (and who would have considered the Earthmen as meat for their tables a mere quarter cenrury earlier), and the Vegans – a mysterious race made up of beings in constant telepathic contact with each other (and consequently unable to predict the random attack formation taken by Earth warships) which preferred mass suicide to defeat. Both the Tellarites and the Andorians had been discovered by this time (neither had anything more than rudimentary intra-system space travel), and it is not surprising that the Earth authorities were hesitant to accept these new races as allies – both had the trapping of a warrior species, and to date all of Earth's attempts at peaceful exploration had been met by wanton hostility.

In 2100, the picture changed dramatically. On a routine mapping expedition, the survey cruiser S.S. Cochrane picked up a subspace radio signal from the main star of a trinary system, and upon investigation found the second planet – a world appeareing a deep blood red with red-violett deserts from space – within the temperature range suitable for humanoid life, if slightly hot. Life readings were picked up from orbit, although the vessel's commander decided against contact without conclusive evidence of intelligent life. Suddenly, a message was received through the ship's normal communications channel – inviting them, in English, to come down to the surface.

The landing party materialized in the city of ShiKahr, one of Vulcan's most beautiful, and was met by a delegation of stately, white-haired humanoids – almost human, in fact, except for the pounted ears, upswept eyebrows, and slightly yellowish complexion. Among the delegation was T'Prel, famed matriarch of Vulcan's Ninth Era, who welcomed the Earthmen and thus forged the first of many bonds of friendship and cooperation between the two species. The Vulcans, it seems, had picked up the Cochrane's subspace broadcast, had quickly duduced the physical nature of subspace, and had learned to speak English from studying the few hundred words they were able to isolate from the ship's broadcast.

Having at last met an alien race that was neither hostile nor impossible to communicate with, Earth vessels – some with Vulcan crew members – were able to deal intelligently with the life forms encountered in their voyages. The Federation was a logical extention of this fateful meeting between humans and Vulcans: an organisation created to maintain balance in the galaxy (already there were predictions of vaster and more powerful enemies, foreshadowing the Romulans and Klingons) and to promote the cultural exchange already begun.

Five worlds were involved in the conception of the Federation; of the five, Earth was easily the most powerful, and in fact all the warp drive vessels then in existence were Earth-built and operated under Terran registration. The Earth influence continued to be a major one in the Federation, a result not only of the superior Earth technology but of the far greater human population: over half of the intelligent life forms in the Federation – about 35 billion individuals – are human. The Earth domination is also evident in Star Fleet, where Starships, until very recently, were under the direct authority of the United Earth Space Probe Agency (although designated as "United Space" ships to indicate their multi-racial origin). Only over the last fifty years have entire Starships been manned by crews of compatable non-human species: the Heavy Cruiser Intrepid was all-Vulcan, the Kongo is primarily Andorian, and the Excalibur II about half-Edoan. It has been found, however, that a complement of at least two-thirds human is more efficient, as the ships were oroginaly designed for human use.

About 1,270 races are now affiliated with the Federation, although some are only signatories of the Federation treaties. Planets which have joined the Federation as members since its conception include: Aldebaran III, Ardana, Argelius II, Axanar, Cait, Catulla, Coridan, Cygnet XIV, Daran V, Deneb II, IV and V, Edos, Izar, Mantilles, Marcos XII, Medeusa, Merak II, Ophiuchus VI, Planet Q, Rigel II, IV and XII, Tiburon, and Vega IX.

A growing conglomeration of diverse cultures and life forms such as the Federation tends to absorb, produces new social systems in a process known as acculturation; individual star systems are subject to a constant and almost subliminal pressure to operate through Federation channels and exist within the framework of Federation mandates. Many planets are forced to abandon their neutrality, and hence, many of their own customs and institutions. In 2981 Federation invention led to a destructive, planet-wide civil war on Altair VI. As a result, new procedures for future contact and exploration were developed – among them General Order Number One, the Prime Directive of noninterference. General Order Number One was desidned to compensate for the assimilation of alien cultures into the Federation, and it has proven to be surprisingly effective – particularly in non-human societies where there is a limited area of possible cooperation or conflict between their culture and the Federation (an example would be a species living on a planet inhospitable to humans). Certainly, without the Prime Directive, the Federation's historical record in contacting and dealing with new civilizations would have been far worse.

The future of the Federation will be shaped by factors unknown to us now, and on this idefinite future rests the existance of a hundred billion beings. It continues to expand at an ever-increasing rate, and although several borders have alreadymade themselves evident – the energy barrier at the galaxy's edge, the neutral zones buffering the Klingon and Romulan empires – there are still an infinite number of directions this expansion may take, and billions of unexplored worlds within the volume already mapped. John Gill once said that the Federation is an entity that can't possibly last forever, but one with a couple of good millenia legt – before it grows up.

The article was published in Star Trek Poster Book #14, 1977. No copyright infrigment is intended.