BACKGROUND 
Founded in 2161, the United Federation of Planets is an alliance of approximately 150 planetary governments and colonies, united for mutual trade, exploratory, scientific, cultural, diplomatic, and defensive endeavors. The five founding parties are Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Orions, and .
The Federation is governed by a council of representatives from the various member planets, that meet in the city of San Francisco, on Earth.
Although the Federation and its Star Fleet have done an extraordinary job of maintaining a generally peaceful climate in this region of the galaxy, the Federation and its member planets have been involved in number of armed conflicts over the years. Notable among these are the tensions with the Klingon Empire, which lasted almost a century until the Organian Peace Treaty, in 2267, and later the Khitomer Conference of 2293. Still unresolved are conflicts with the Romulan Star Empire, and the Tholian Assembly.
The Federation was involved in a protracted, bitter war with Cardassia, that dated back to the 2350s. An uneasy peace treaty with the Cardassian Union was reached in 2366. Conflict with the Cardassians continued at a lower level for years. In particular, the Federation took control of an old cardassian mining station, Deep Space Nine, in the Bajoran System, near the newly discovered Wormhole.
POLICY The United Federation of Planets was founded as a peaceful collaboration of many planetary governments, dedicated to peaceful acquisition of knowledge, technologies, and better living. The Federation seeks out new civilizations, in hopes of establishing peaceful contact, and developing a relationship which is prosperous to both.
The most important policy of the Federation is the Prime Directive. The Prime Directive states that we must not, for any reason, interfere with the natural development of a less advanced culture, and that we must also not interfere with the internal affairs of any government outside of the Federation.
The Federation accepts all offers of peace which are believed to be in good faith. Treaties offered by any race, which are believed to be to allow that race to reload and regroup before attacking are not accepted.
FEDERATION COUNCIL The Federation Council, along with the President, deal with the political and economic issues such as negotiating treaties, or the distribution of resources. To this end, there are some ships that are not a part of Star Fleet, mainly transports, allowing people and products to be transported efficiently. As the Federation is a Representative Democracy, representatives from each of the member planets make up the council. Each representative is elected by the planetary government, and from them, the president is elected.
STARFLEET COMMAND Star Fleet Command is responsible for keeping ships ready and able to work for the Federation's economic, scientific, and defensive needs. They assign missions, and supply briefings, as well as gather intelligence information. Normally, Command will decide what needs to be done, and then assign a fleet commander or fleet captain to the mission, who in turn assigns ships to specific areas of the mission. Often, on research or exploratory missions, Star Fleet Command will directly assign ships to explore certain sectors, as this is the simplest, most efficient way of keeping track. In extreme emergencies, Star Fleet Command and the Federation Council will meet, and assign missions to each individual ship, and in some cases, to each individual person.
Preamble to the Articles of the Federation to save succeeding generations from the scourge of intra-galactic war which has brought untold horror and suffering to our planetary social systems, and
to reaffirm faith in the fundamental intelligent life-form rights, in the dignity and worth of the intelligent life-form person, to the equal rights of male and female and of planetary social systems large and small, and
to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
to practice benevolent tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and
to unite our strength to maintain intra-galactic peace and security, and
to ensure by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods that armed force shall not be used except in the common defense, and
to employ intra-galactic machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all intelligent life-forms,
Accordingly, the respective social systems, through representatives assembled on the planet Babel, who have exhibited their full powers to be in good and due form, have agreed to these Articles of Federation of the United Federation of Planets, and do hereby establish an inter-planetary organization to be known as the United Federation of Planets.
(Captain) Given to Extremely Interesting or Well made sites (Ensign) Given to Relatively Uninteresting or poorly made sites; the other symbols fall in between in order of rank
(Symbol of the Maquis) Given to very original sites
Because this is a new page, and because of the sheer number of links, they haven't all been rated yet. The next revision will also list them in a more orderly fashion.
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