What if the Federation joined the Dominion?

[Snowdrop82]

What if the Federation joined the Dominion? I am speaking of in-universe events and how such a thing might occur, and what it would result in. If they joined the Dominion, or at least aligned with them willingly instead of fighting a war against them - how that'd have went.

 

[Lynx]

Not good, I think.

They would have become a Dominion colony. The Dominion would steal all resources from the federation, the citizens would have been forced to fight in wars for the Dominion, the freedom would have been taken from them and the Founders would have become dictators.

Just see what happened to Cardassia in the series.
Or that poor planet in the episode The Quickening where the Dominion punished the population by giving them a horrible disease.

 

[Oddish]

The Federation wasn't like the Cardassian alliance, which had been a tyrannical police state for decades, and therefore could transition to Dominion rule easily enough. By its very nature, the Federation was the opposite of the Dominion, a culture based in freedom and self determination. It could no more have joined the Dominion without ceasing to be what it was then it could have joined the Borg

 

[somebuddyX]

There was a fanfiction I read where the Dominion opened up another wormhole a few decades after DS9 ended and invaded again. They overwhelmed the Alpha Quadrant and forced everyone to surrender. That's about the only way I could see a lot of the Alpha Quadrant states joining the Dominion.

 

[F. King Daniel]

FWIW, I'd love the Federation to meet a bigger, more advanced and more benevolent Federation and see what happens. They'd never do it, though.

 

[DarthTimon]

The Feds would only join the Dominion under duress, or possibly to seek defence against an even more dangerous enemy (like the Borg). Any kind of 'membership' probably wouldn't be pleasant, with the typical freedoms enjoyed by Federation citizens being rapidly curtailed.

 

[Deleted 102017]

Sounds like being on a drinking session and combining vodka and tequila all the time

Jokes aside would be surprised if that happened

 

[FredH]

FWIW, I'd love the Federation to meet a bigger, more advanced and more benevolent Federation and see what happens. They'd never do it, though.

Years ago I had a fanfiction idea for the Federation to be visited by a ship from a comparatively superadvanced intergalactic Federation-equivalent which is friendly enough, but won’t engage in trade or provide any technological knowledge because they’ve got the equivalent of a Prime Directive too — and to them, a union of a few hundred worlds in a small patch of a single galaxy is pretty much what a single planet would be to the UFP.

 

[Nerys Myk]

What if the Federation joined the Dominion? I am speaking of in-universe events and how such a thing might occur, and what it would result in. If they joined the Dominion, or at least aligned with them willingly instead of fighting a war against them - how that'd have went.

Then the Dominion would become the "good guys".

 

[DonIago]

What if the Federation joined the Dominion? I am speaking of in-universe events and how such a thing might occur, and what it would result in. If they joined the Dominion, or at least aligned with them willingly instead of fighting a war against them - how that'd have went.

This seems implausible to the point of not so much being a "What if?" but a "Why bother?" scenario. You didn't say why you feel the Federation might consider voluntarily joining the Dominion, and the most likely scenario otherwise seems to me that the Dominion conquers the Federation, in which case Earth is either destroyed or occupied along with probably most Federation worlds.

You're asking us to consder how such a thing might occur, but I can't think of any reason why the Federation would voluntarily join the Dominion. Short of being conquered, the next most likely scenario would be that enough Founders infiltrated the Federation Council to subvert it, but that's not much different from conquering the Federation.

 

[at Quark's]

The Federation wasn't like the Cardassian alliance, which had been a tyrannical police state for decades, and therefore could transition to Dominion rule easily enough. By its very nature, the Federation was the opposite of the Dominion, a culture based in freedom and self determination. It could no more have joined the Dominion without ceasing to be what it was then it could have joined the Borg

True. Even if, somehow, the Federation Council, politicians, and planetary governments would somehow agree to join (nearly impossible in itself), the mindset of average Federation citizens probably still would cause problems and conflicts.

On the other hand, the Dominion doesn't necessarily treat subject worlds that don't stir up trouble badly. The Karemma for example were largely left to their own, it seems.

FWIW, I'd love the Federation to meet a bigger, more advanced and more benevolent Federation and see what happens. They'd never do it, though.

I've played with this thought in 'Ian Bank's " The Culture" makes contact with the UFP' - kind of scenario's. Probably The Culture would view the Federation as a well-intentioned but still somewhat immature civilization that hasn't figured out yet when to, and when not to take responsibility by interfering in still more primitive civilizations and for that reason keeps to a rigid blanket Prime Directive to rather err on the safe side. Even though the Culture itself has somewhat similar rules themselves that for example forbid handing out too advanced tech to those that aren't ready for it.

 

[FredH]

What if the Federation joined the Dominion? I am speaking of in-universe events and how such a thing might occur, and what it would result in. If they joined the Dominion, or at least aligned with them willingly instead of fighting a war against them - how that'd have went.

Maybe after a new Federation President is elected on a platform promising to Make the Federation Great Again.

The results wouldn’t be good.

 

[kkt]

I don't see it ending well. The Federation is too used to benevolent goverment, freedom of expression, the rule of law, and the member planets being able to choose their own course to be good little Dominion subjects. The Federation would either break free or be treated extremely harshly.

Yes, in the Dominion War the Federation only defeated a tiny portion of the Dominion forces. I fully expect them to find another wormhole or two, or send a huge expeditionary force the long way at Warp to deal with the Federation occupying a whole string of star systems along the way to protect their supply lines.

 

[at Quark's]

or send a huge expeditionary force the long way at Warp to deal with the Federation occupying a whole string of star systems along the way to protect their supply lines.

Problem with that plan is, those ships would be 80 years out of date when arriving at their target. And we've seen how quickly the Federation was advancing during the Dominion War - from impenetrable Dominion shields and Jem'Hadar fighters that destroyed a Galaxy to the Defiant slicing through those very same fighters like a hot knife through butter.

Unless the Dominion actually is a lot more advanced than their Alpha Quadrant outpost suggested.

Also, the longer your supply lines are, the more vulnerable, even when under maximum protection.

 

[kkt]

Problem with that plan is, those ships would be 80 years out of date when arriving at their target. And we've seen how quickly the Federation was advancing during the Dominion War - from impenetrable Dominion shields and Jem'Hadar fighters that destroyed a Galaxy to the Defiant slicing through those very same fighters like a hot knife through butter.

Unless the Dominion actually is a lot more advanced than their Alpha Quadrant outpost suggested.

Also, the longer your supply lines are, the more vulnerable, even when under maximum protection.

The Dominion can bring what they need for shipyards and cloning facilities and build or clone according to the newest technology when they get close to Federation space.

 

[at Quark's]

The Dominion can bring what they need for shipyards and cloning facilities and build or clone according to the newest technology when they get close to Federation space.

Yes, that would seem a smarter tactic. Build up a huge base fairly close (but still beyond detection range) to Federation territory and build your modern fleet there.

Even so, the question is whether the Dominion can keep up with the pace of Federation technology development. They're either 2,000 or 10,000 years old (depending on who you believe) , but didn't seem that much more advanced than the only 300 year old Federation to begin with.

 

[kkt]

Yes, that would seem a smarter tactic. Build up a huge base fairly close (but still beyond detection range) to Federation territory and build your modern fleet there.

Even so, the question is whether the Dominion can keep up with the pace of Federation technology development. They're either 2,000 or 10,000 years old (depending on who you believe) , but didn't seem that much more advanced than the only 300 year old Federation to begin with.

That super long range transporter they've got would be handy.

 

[at Quark's]

That super long range transporter they've got would be handy.

Yes, the Dominion still enjoys a number of significant advantages, those long transporter beams being one of them, their superior shipbuilding (and soldier-producing) speeds another one. But the Federation may make up for their (dis)advantages in those fields over time, too.

 

[kkt]

The Dominion will continue to improve as well. They are big enough to send a large expeditionary force and still carry out a large R&D effort.

 

[Crewman6]

There was a fanfiction I read where the Dominion opened up another wormhole a few decades after DS9 ended and invaded again. They overwhelmed the Alpha Quadrant and forced everyone to surrender. That's about the only way I could see a lot of the Alpha Quadrant states joining the Dominion.

Well, like all fanfic, that sounds horrible.