Hi again, Ric here with the next peart of the early Starfleet lore vids. Last time we
looked at how the Vulcans had shaped the direction of the fledgling Starfleet and today, we’re
looking at how the Romulans, Earth’s first interstellar enemy (kinda), inadvertently
created the Federation. One thing is fundamental to understand how
the Romulan government and military works. They are a paranoid and xenophobic species.
Therefore, the Romulans, perpetually suspicious, don’t like not being in control and they
have been determined since their exodus from Vulcan to be the masters of their own destiny.
To do this, they sought to maintain their supremacy in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants
through the doctrine of Unlimited Expansion. Through might or guile, what they could conquer,
they could control. In the 22nd century, the Romulan Star Empire
was smaller than it would later become, but undeniably one of the strongest powers around.
The other future major players, such as Andorian, Tellarites and the Klingons were very much
still smaller powers looking at their own interests and this suited the Romulans very
well. After all, if a nation or power is looking inwards and only after itself it becomes much
easier to manipulate than one that is seeking to secure alliances and build relations. The
worst threat to them was probably the Klingons with the occasional raids on their colonies,
but the Klingon Empire at this time was too fractured to really offer any real threat.
The Romulans placed spies throughout the Alpha Quadrant, rather easily as their physical
appearance was generally unknown and they conducted many of their activities through
the use of drone ships or proxies. They defended their territory with extensive cloaked minefields,
a technology with little competition and generally worked from behind the scenes. As their Vulcan
ancestry was a secret, many would have been able to pass as Vulcans on cursory inspection
so who knows exactly how far their undercover network reached in the 22nd century.
However, their most ambitious project was the infiltration of their cousin species’
government. They had agents, or at least sympathisers within the Vulcan High Command itself, most
notably Administrator V’Las who held great political sway. It’s not confirmed in canon,
but I’ve a theory that the Romulan involvement in Vulcan affairs had been going on for decades,
maybe even centuries and had (at least) taken advantage of shifting interpretations of the
teachings of Surak to effectively stigmatise the telepathic practices of Vulcans leading
to their eventual ban in society. After all, what better way to hide among telepaths than
to deny them their powers? The Vulcans of the 22nd century were also
much more suspicious and cynical of other species than their later portrayal in Trek
would show them to be. The Vulcans built listening posts along the Andorian border, treated humanity
as downright irresponsible at times and mobilised military force at the drop of a hat. These
all strike me the hallmarks of a Romulan approach rather than a Vulcan one and even if not directly
the result of Romulan machinations, those under the banner of the Raptor certainly benefitted
from the Vulcans actions. So with agents consistently unbalancing their
neighbouring powers, a secure defensive line created by mines and cloaking technology unrivalled
by their contemporaries, the Romulans successfully watched and manipulated from behind the scenes
with even their appearance a mystery. Then enter some muddy little damp planet named
after dirt and its native populous of varied primate evolutions which upset all of that.
Humanity had been growing quickly after breaking the warp 2 barrier and despite Vulcan efforts
to slow the pace of their development, again I smell a hidden Romulan involvement, Starfleet
was striving ever further into space and encountering new species.
Things truly rang alarm bells for the Romulans however when Starfleet began to demonstrate
a successful ability to balance its alliance with Vulcan with a decent relation with their
long time antagonists, the Andorians. This showed that Earth was a bigger issue than
first realised, not for what they were, but what they represented. Their rapid growth
notwithstanding, humans had proven time and time again adept at forging alliances and
through that, facilitating a unity between former rival powers. The even got the Tellarites
and the Andorians talking. Romulan analysts predicted, quite accurately, that such actions
risked forming a political superpower that outclassed the Star Empire.
This was a threat to Romulan superiority and therefore, in their paranoid view, a threat
to their safety. They key to their success had been the divided nature of their nearby
competitors and seeing them slowly being brought together, the Romulans felt pressed to take
more drastic actions to destabilise Earth. On top of this, the rediscovery of the Kir’Shara,
the original unedited teachings of Surak alongside the remnants of the man’s Katra began a
reformation in Vulcan society that forced out V’Las and had the Vulcans begin to drastically
reconsider the direction they were taking. Again, humanity’s influence was at play,
undoing the status quo that had served the Star Empire for centuries.
In 2154, the Romulans initiated the Babel crisis. Using an unmanned drone vessel with
advanced holographic and scrambling technology, the Romulans were able to create a series
of false flag operations to interrupt relations between species such as the Andorians and
Tellarites. More strikes by this drone however began to tip Starfleet off to the meddling
of a third party and finally aware of being duped, the Romulans accidently ensured that
the Andorians, Humans, Tellarites and Vulcans would work together to uncover the Romulan
plot. The unfortunate romulan behind this plan was former Senator Valdore, a man who
would seemingly redeem himself enough during the coming conflicts to have a Romulan ship-class
named after him. A joint task force of 128 ships was formed
to catch the Romulan drone and now aware of the threat posed by the Star Empire, the four
species entered into a Coalition with each other for defence in 2155. Not to mention
many other governments who wished to be involved in this historic alliance in some manner or
other such as Denobulans and Rigellians. Now on guard for the Romulans, what eventually
followed was the Earth-Romulan War of 2156 to 2160. During this four year skirmish, the
Romulans successfully managed to maintain the secrecy of their lineage and no one was
able to report on ever having met a Romulan. The Star Empire probed and prodded at the
coalition’s lines for months but for them, Earth was the target, seen as the glue that
held the Coalition together so Starfleet bore the brunt of the aggression. Despite this
the others in the coalition did lend their aid in supporting Starfleet against the Empire
and there were many recorded battles such as the Battle of Galorndon Core. This conflict
saw Admiral Chulak of the Star Empire crash into the planet at warp, causing the ecological
disaster that left the planet in its uninhabitable state.
In 2160 the battle of Cheron marked the final conflict. What began as a purely Starfleet
strike against a Romulan shipyard ended up becoming a decisive victory when Coalition
forces arrived to aid Starfleet and overwhelm the Romulans. Following this, the Star Empire
opened audio only subspace communications with the Coalition and entered into a treaty
with their enemies to define a Neutral Zone of space along the Romulan boarder which would
not be crossed, supposedly ensuring both powers left one another alone.
As for the Coalition of Planets, seeing the success of their joint operations over the
past few years and the progress they could make together, the four founding species drew
up a new charter for a larger, more permanent alliance in the form of the United Federation
of Planets. Naturally the Romulans learned their lesson and decided not to mess with
the UFP ever again. Of course they didn’t but that’s all for another day.
Thanks for watching and as before, if there is a topic around the early years of Starfleet
you’d like to see, let me know and I’ll set about researching it. Until the next one,
I’ve been Ric, thanks again and goodbye!