United Federation of Planets

The United Federation of Planets, also known as the UFP (for its acronym in English, "United Federation of Planets") or simply The Federation, is a fictional interplanetary state developed for the science fiction franchise Star Trek (Trip to the Stars in Latin America).

Government

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The Federation, as its name suggests, is an interplanetary federal state made up of more than 150 member planets and about a thousand colonies which, according to Captain Jean Luc Picard in the movie Star Trek: First Contact, spans more than 8,000 light years in the Milky Way. It is, according to the Star Trek universe, one of the superpowers of the Galaxy.

Its system of government is democratic, with a legislative branch known as the Federation Council, which has a representative from each federal planet, whose headquarters are located in San Francisco, Earth. Executive power is exercised by the president of the Federation, elected by the Council, whose headquarters are in Paris. There is also a judicial power called the Supreme Court of the Federation. The armed forces come together in the Starfleet, which fulfills the role of military agency (only in extreme cases), scientific and exploration.

The fundamental charter of this State is called the Charter of the Federation which, as indicated in several episodes, is similar to the Magna Carta of the United Nations, although Picard in the chapter The Drumhead refers to it as the Constitution. The Federation Charter includes the so-called “Seven Guarantees” similar to amendments to the United States Constitution.

There are various requirements for membership in the Federation, including the abolition of any caste system, genetic manipulation for war purposes, cruel treatment of the population, or lack of civil rights within the State. Although it is recommended, it is not a requirement that the planet that enters be completely unified and the Federation can admit planets whose governments do not administer the entire planetary territory, that is, where there is no global unification. But only in very specific cases. Commander William T. Riker said that the federation would not admit a single continent, although this case has already occurred.

The Federation is a military ally of the Klingon Empire for most of its history, although they were enemies for a time. Despite this, the Federation has waged violent wars and conflicts with almost all other galactic powers such as the Romulan Empire, the Cardassian Union, the Ferengi Alliance, the Dominion, and the Borg.

Featured Members

The species that stand out the most throughout the plot are:

• Humans; founding members, to this species belong most of the characters of the franchise. They were also the creators of Starfleet.
• Vulcans; founding members, to this species belong the Spock characters in TOS and Discovery, Star Trek Selar: The Next Generation, T'Pol, Star Trek: Enterprise and Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager, among others.
• Tellaritas; founding members, although little represented in the franchise, among the characters of this origin are Ambassador Gra of Stat Trek: Enterprise and Admiral Gorch of Star Trek: Discovery
• Andorians; founding members, are recognizable by their blue skin and the presence of antennas in their heads, in Star Trek: Enterprise appear recurrently, especially Thy'lek Shran, commander of the Andoria Imperial Guard.
• Trills; this species belongs to the character of Jadzia Dax in DS9.
• Bolianos; this species belongs the hairdresser in TNG and an ex-Machi crewman in Star Trek: Voyager.
• Betazoides; this species belongs to the character of Deanna Troi in TNG), this species when it is telepathic tends to occupy counsellor positions within the star fleet.
• Denobulans; this species belongs to the character of Dr. Phlox in Star Trek: Enterprise.
• Caitanos; feline species that appears mainly in TOS, this species belongs the character of M'Ress in Star Trek: The Animated Series.

Preludes

In the aftermath of the violent Human-Romulan War between the mighty Romulan Star Empire and Earth with their allies—Vulcans, Telarites, and Andorians—ended in 2160 after nearly a decade of conflict. The Federation's immediate predecessor was the Coalition of Planets made up of what would eventually be the Four Founding Members; Earth, Vulcano, Loom and Andoria. It should be noted that Earth was the promoter of this agreement in order to end the old Andorian-Vulcan conflict once and for all and give these planets greater political importance.

Klingon Federation and Empire

The war between the two galactic powers, the Federation and the Klingon Empire, broke out in 2223, extending for a long period of conflict until 2267 when the Organian Peace Treaty was signed between the Federation of United Planets and the Klingon Empire. Despite this, a state of cold war persisted between the two powers for decades, with occasional skirmishes, ending with the Khitomer Accords, which ultimately cemented a century-long peace between the Federals and the Klingons, which would ultimately lead to a military alliance.. Especially after during the year 2344 a Klingon ship attacked by the Romulan Star Empire, was defended by the USS Enterprise C under the command of Captain Rachel Garrett, destroying this ship in the process, which meant a sacrifice of great honor to the Klingons. Precisely in 2311 the Tomed Incident caused a war between federals and Romulans that ended with the Treaty of Algernon, which nevertheless kept them in a tense peace. United by the common enemy Romulan, Federal and Klingon thus cemented a powerful military alliance and came to mutual support according to different wars and conflicts. In both the Star Trek: The Next Generation series and Deep Space 9 it can be seen how Federals and Klingons are military allies fighting common enemies. Even in DS9 they fight together with the Dominion.

History

Foundation

The Federation was founded in 2161 (on August 12, according to some sources) by the four founding species; Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. after the speech of Captain Jonathan Archer, who would later be its president for the period 2184-2192.

Cardassian War

In 2347 a massacre of federal civilians by the Cardassians on Setlik III sparked the long Cardassian War between the Federation and the Cardassian Empire, which would not end until the truce of 2370, creating the Demilitarized Zone. Large tracts of territory on the Cardassian border were not clearly divided and federal settlers were forced to share territory with Cardassians, sparking ethnic conflict and the rise of the rebel guerilla known as the Maquis.

The Maquis are rebel colonists who, when the Federation signed the Peace Treaty with the Cardassians, their territories were turned over to Cardassia and the Federation decided to relocate them without their consent. For many of these colonists this situation was unacceptable, in addition they had to suffer constant violent confrontations with the Cardassians (in Star Trek: Voyager, for example, one of the Maquis mentions to Tuvok how his girlfriend was raped and murdered by Cardassians, and in DS9 Captain Sisko, who sympathizes with the Maquis, mentions how the rulers of the Federation live in a paradise without war, without poverty and without crime, very different from the conditions of the frontier settlers).

The Maquis, who could be considered a kind of left-wing rebel guerrilla within the Federation, are highly symbolic within the series' criticism of itself, as the Federation itself and its government tend to idealize themselves by seeing themselves as a kind of democratic and peaceful paradise, but apparently, the frontier settlers suffer from many deprivations, abandonment and feel abandoned in the face of the violence that the Cardassians inflict on them. Thus, the rise of the Maquis is a kind of social revolt against the established federal order.

In DS9 the Maquis buy powerful explosive missiles from the Klingons on the black market, and launch them against Cardassia. The governments of the Federation and the Klingon Empire are concerned about this situation that, should the bombs go off killing thousands of Cardassian civilians in an attack by the Federals using Klingon technology, it would lead to a terrible conflict between the Cardassians against the Federal-Klingon alliance.. Although the attack manages to be prevented, in the Dominion War that inevitable clash between powers would take place.

In 2365 there is a confrontation with the terrible Borg Collective that sought the eradication of the Federation and all the galactic powers, the first official contact with the Q and the Klingon Civil War –in which the Federation intervened as mediator of peace. The Maquis joined the Federation in Star Trek Voyager where a crew member of the ship was a Cardassian and was spying on the Federation. The contrail ship USS Voyager was lost in a search for the Maquis and a creature teleported them to the quadrant. Delta 75,000 light years from the Alpha quadrant. The Maquis were a group of rebels against the union of the Federation and Cardassia. The Cardassian crew member of the USS Voyager, being in the Delta quadrant, joined with a species called the Kazones who also they were enemies of Voyager and the Federation.

Dominion War

The Dominion War was fought between 2373 and 2375 between two sides, on one side the Federation Alliance, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire allied against the Dominion, the Cardassian Empire and the Breen Confederacy. The war was won by the Federal-Klingon-Romulan alliance but with heavy losses. This was by far the largest recorded war conflict in the Galaxy (equivalent to World War II).

Future

In the final seasons of DS9, when the Klingons went on a warmongering run, and declared war on the Cardassians, they immediately appealed to the Federation for their military support, naturally being allies and having fought together many times. The Federation did not agree to join the conflict, which was interpreted by the Klingons as a dishonorable betrayal of their longstanding friendship, thus beginning a conflict with the Federation for the first time in centuries. The Federation was on the verge of being defeated, but they finally managed to reestablish their long alliance and friendship. In fact, according to the non-canonical Star Trek extended universe, in 2550 the Klingons join the Federation.

According to the Massively Multiplayer Online Game Star Trek Online, the current Stardate is in the year 2410. The Klingons are at war with the Federation, Cardassia is in a long and painful process of rebuilding after the destruction left behind by the Dominion's withdrawal from it, and the Federation is assisting in its rebuilding. In this same time and game, the Romulans have lost their home planet, and have established themselves on New Romulus, in the Nimbus III sector.

It should be noted that in the history of ST Online a large number of new and dangerous enemies have appeared and other old ones have reappeared, the Breen, the Borg with their Invasion force, the Tholians, the Devidians, and now the mythical ones arrive and very ancient Iconians, once rulers of the entire Galaxy.

To combat these new threats, and despite the war that confronts them, the Federation and the Klingon Empire have established a Joint Task Force called the Omega Task Force.

Here we can see how powerful the Federation is in resisting open warfare on many fronts. We also see how the former primary objective of the Federation, Exploration, is in the background, and even the new ships are more oriented towards Defense than Exploration itself.

During the 29th century the Federation explores time travel, as it previously explored space travel.

In the 31st century, a great cataclysm blew up all the dilithium in ships in the galaxy, causing chaos, followed by the collapse of the Federation as explained in the third season of Star Trek: Discovery.

Economy

Although the Federation has a currency or exchange rate called the federal credit, the truth is that the franchise clearly establishes that there is no money within the Federation nor is there a need for it. Replicators and social conditions within the Federation make money obsolete for federal citizens. The federal credit, more than a currency, seems to be a kind of collection check that serves as an exchange of goods and services, even though there has never been talk of salaries for any federal official.

Poverty does not exist within the Federation, and basically there are no social classes either. All citizens are virtually equal in socioeconomic resources, and it would not appear that, for example, high command officers have more purchasing power than subordinates.

Despite this, the Feds can trade other species using Latino-pressed gold or Federal credit.

Culture

The Federation is a secular state, unlike other states with powerful priesthoods, such as the Klingons. It has no official religion or religions and there is a strict division between Church and State, especially since each species has its own religion or lack thereof (like the mostly agnostic humans and the mostly agnostic rationalist Vulcans though with a belief in a transcendent spiritual reality).. On the other hand, some Federal species have deep spiritual beliefs, such as the Betazoids and Bajorans.

Each people of the Federation preserve their cultural traditions and often share them, especially due to the existence of many marriages and mixed unions between federal species, and even between federal and Klingon species. Captains generally allow crew members to take time for their own religious and cultural practices, as proven countless times by Picard's many permissions for Worf to perform his Klingon rites or educate his son in Klingon culture. Or how Vulcan crewmen like Spock in The Original Series and Tuvok in Voyager are allowed to perform their various Vulcan cults and special rites.

Being an amalgamation of cultures, there is a kind of macro-culture or federal culture based on the basic principles of the Federation that influences all species in some way. Something like what happens in very large and populated countries like the United States, where there is a unifying general culture, but also local cultures that are partly stronger than the national culture.

For a planet to belong to the Federation, it must meet three requirements: eliminate borders, that is, that all countries unite as brothers, create a world government and live according to the fundamental law of the universe, cooperation.

Militia

While the Federation is the union of many democratic, peaceful and intellectual species in the Galaxy, it is also a powerful military force and one of the great galactic powers. However, both in The Next Generation -in an alternate future where there was never peace with the Klingons and the Federation was on the verge of collapse and defeat- and in the brief war against the Klingons in DS9 it is shown that the Klingon Empire is much stronger than the Federation on paper, but is ultimately shown in several episodes to be the Two Greater Powers of the Alpha Quadrant. Fortunately for the Federation, the Klingons are their allies. The Federation is probably, along with the Klingons, the First power in the Galaxy without counting the Borg Collective. Some of the other galactic powers are the Dominion, the Romulan Star Empire, the Breen Confederacy and the Cardassian Union, as well as the Ferengi Alliance which, while not a military power, is one in the economic sense. Basically these powers have all been at war with each other and don't get along. The only alliance that has lasted for a long time is the alliance between the Federation and the Klingons. During the Dominion War, however, there was a sporadic alliance between two military sides; the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire against the Dominion, the Cardassian Union, and the Breen Confederacy. What's unusual about this is that the Romulans had been historical enemies of the Feds and Klingons. In order to gain the Romulan Star Empire's adherence to the Alliance against The Dominion, the Cardassian Union and the Breen Confederacy, Benjamin Sisko Commander of Deep Space Nine Station resorts to dishonorable tactics, altering a Recording contained on a storage media salvaged from the rubble. of the ship of a Romulan spy in Cardasia-Dominion territory, in which one of the leaders (Weyoun) is seen debating the next Invasion of Romulan Space. Benjamin Sisko is not comfortable pulling off such a deception, but the need for the Romulan presence in the defense of the Alpha Quadrant leads him to materialize the Deception. Thanks to this act of espionage, the Romulans join the Alliance to defend the Alpha Quadrant from invasion and achieve their goal at great cost.