Cardassian Union

First Contact with the Federation: No data avalible

Home planet: Cardassia
Planet class: M

The Cardassian Union has perhaps been the most unstable of the major powers in the Alpha Quadrant. They were introduced to the viewers in TNG's "The Wounded", and they quickly established themselves as one of the most brutal and devious enemies of the Federation. But they weren't always like this....

Long ago, the Cardassians were peaceful, spiritual people. They collected some of the best works of art in the entire Quadrant, along with Jewels and other treasures. But while Cardassia was home to legendary ruins and treasures, the planet itself lacked something more important - natural resources. Within years, the people were starving to death and disease was rampant. There seemed to be no end to the suffering. Cardassia was on its knees, and almost out....

At this point the Military, (which in later years would become known as the Central Command) had become sick at how weak their citizens had become, and they took control of the Government. They proposed that the only way Cardassia could survive was for Cardassia to expand. Soon, warships were invading nearby worlds and stealing their resources, territory and technology. The Union began to grow stronger, as its borders expanded. The planet which suffered the most from the Cardassian re-birth was Bajor. The Bajorans, like the Cardassians, were peaceful, spiritual people. When the Cardassians came to their world, the Bajorans accepted the promises of help and support from their neighbors. Big Mistake - the Cardassians annexed Bajor, and 60 years of occupation followed, during which 10 million Bajorans lost their lives....

At some point, the Cardassians probably tried to expand their territory into someone else's space - mainly the Federation's. Soon, war had broken out (before the year 2347). To date, the exact reason why this war started has never been stated on the small screen. The fighting would continue for over 20 years....

Back on Bajor, the locals were not just content to rely on their Prophets to see through the brutal occupation of their homeland. Over the years Resistance Groups, like the Shakaar, had sprung up here and there, and they conducted terrorist activities against the Cardassians on Bajor. While the Central Command was successful at taking the majority of Bajor's resources, the constant attacks by the Resistance were slowly beginning to effect opinion back home on Cardassia Prime.

By 2367, the Union had become very strong, but not quite strong enough to overpower Starfleet. Soon, negotiations were in progress to end the Cardassian-Federation War. Eventually a peace treaty was signed, but there was a serious lack of trust within Starfleet about the true motives of the Cardassians - some people thought that they only signed the treaty so that they could regroup and rearm their forces for a new assault on Federation Space. On Stardate 44429.6, Captains Picard and Maxwell discovered that the Cardassians were making preparations to launch an attack against the Federation, once this was discovered by Starfleet, the Union backed down, for now.....

Later, on Stardate 46360.8 the Cardassians showed just how devious and ruthless they could be when they designed an elaborate trap for Captain Picard by leaking disinformation to Starfleet. The Union hoped that Picard would know Starfleet's defense plans for Minos Korva, a Federation planet close to the Cardassian border which the Union attempted to annex during the war. Their plan was only partially successful - while managing to kidnap Picard, they were unable to gain the defense plans, which Picard had no knowledge of. That didn't stop the Captain's Interrogator from ignoring Interstellar law and torturing Picard anyway. The Captain was only released after a Cardassian Invasion fleet was threatened with destruction by Starfleet.

Around this time, the Cardassians had grown weary of the Bajoran terrorists, and the leaders back home gave the order to their forces within the Bajoran System to withdraw. Some officers in the Central Command were, to put it mildly, furious - not only were they leaving any remaining resources on Bajor, but they were also leaving a Mining Station called Ternok Nor in orbit over the planet. The Union carried out its promise however, and soon the occupation of Bajor was over. The Bajoran Provisional Government, aware that their shattered world was defenseless, asked the Federation to establish a Starfleet presence within the Bajoran System. Starfleet agreed, and by Stardate 46379.1 the Federation and Bajorans were in control of the old Mining Station - which was now called Deep Space Nine. Little did the Cardassians know that they had missed the best resource of them all....

Soon after the Cardassian withdraw, Starfleet discovered one end of a stable wormhole within the Bajoran System. The other end lead all the way to a distant part of the galaxy 50,000 light years away - The Gamma Quadrant - unexplored by any Alpha Quadrant race, and no doubt full of new treasures and resources. Thanks to Starfleet, Bajor was able to claim the rights to the Wormhole - or as the Bajorans would call it, The Celestial Temple.

The Cardassians soon got over this shock, and just over a year later, they were almost successful in forcing Starfleet to leave Bajor by helping a Bajoran extremist group oust the Provisional Government from Power, which would have left Bajor wide open for the Cardassians to reclaim the system - and the Wormhole.

About 4 months later, the Cardassians and the Federation agreed to 'redraw' the border between the two powers. This meant that some Cardassian Planets were now in Federation Space, and vice versa, so some people on both sides had to be re-located. In addition, a buffer zone between Cardassian and Federation space was set-up - this was called the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

Certain hard-liners within the Union were unsatisfied with this agreement, and soon, Cardassian operatives were doing all they could to make life very uncomfortable for the Federation colonists living close to the Cardassian side of the DMZ, hoping that they would leave their homes so the Union could claim them. This attempt to gain new territory would eventually backfire on the Cardassians - the Federation colonists were already angry that their own Government had betrayed them, and the Cardassian attacks (unprovoked assaults on Federation Citizens, sabotage of Food replicators etc.) was the final straw. They created the Maquis, and soon they were carrying out terrorist attacks against the Cardassians....

Meanwhile, the Obsidian Order, the Cardassian Intelligence Service agency, was slowly gaining power, to the point that not even the Central Command were always aware of what the Order was up to. On Stardate 48467.3 a Federation Starship was temporarily captured by the Maquis, who were worried about reports of a secret Cardassian fleet which was going to be used against them. During this time, it was revealed that the Order had top-of the line warships under their control - which was against an agreement made between themselves and the Central Command.. Despite this the Order appeared to answer to no-one.....

The Order came to a unexpected end when it joined forces with their Romulan Counterparts, the Tai Shiar, in a pre-emptive strike against the new enemy - The Dominion. The loss of the Intelligence agency sparked hopes within the Cardassian Underground Movement that they would soon be able to push the Central Command out of power - soon those hopes became reality - and the Cardassian Union had a new Civilian Government, the leaders of which were called the Detapa Council. But then, disaster stuck.... On Stardate 49011.4, The Klingon Empire, for some reason, believed that the Detapa Council had been infiltrated by the Dominion, and with paranoia running at an all-time high within the Alpha Quadrant, the Warriors, lead by General Martok, launched a full scale invasion of Cardassia. While the invasion was eventually aborted, the after-effects would leave a lasting impact. For the first time in decades the Cardassian Union was in a weakened state. Several of the outer colonies had been captured by Klingon forces, most of the fleet had been destroyed defending the homeland, and the economy was shattered.

All of this meant that the Cardassians had to request help from their old adversaries, the Federation. Luckily, the vast Alpha Quadrant alliance agreed, and soon Starfleet was escorting Ship Convoys and giving the Union Industrial Grade replicators to replace those lost in the Klingon invasion. However, the Maquis, who had taken advantage of the Union's misfortune would be successful in claiming some of the replicators for themselves. By Stardate 50013.9, the Klingons had declared War on the Federation. Soon afterwards, it was discovered that one of the Dominion Founders had infiltrated the Klingon Empire. This Founder had not only been responsible for encourging the war to start, but had also encouraged the Klingons to invade Cardassia for the Dominion's own ends. With this discovery the Federation-Klingon War was over, but Klingon forces still occupied Cardassian Space.

Unknown to most people, an ambitious Cardassian, Gul Dukat, was carrying out secret negotiations which would result in the second resurrection of his people. He announced that Cardassia was joining the Dominion - and that he was installing himself as the leader. Not surprisingly, this had quite an impact on the Alpha Quadrant status-quo. Dukat declared his intentions to rid Cardassian Space of the Klingons, and to eliminate the Maquis. Within 3 days, Cardassia's leader had delivered both of these promises to his people.

With the Cardassian Union now stronger than ever, free of Klingon occupation and under Dominion Rule, will the Cardassians reclaim 'all that has been lost', or will Dukat go down in history as the man who lead his people to their doom?