I just finished watching the Dominion War saga and have one question: why did the Dominion target the Federation going as far as to politically isolate it with non-aggression treaties with alpha-beta quadrant powers, when the danger to it's exsistance were belligerent empires like the Cardassians, Romulans etc who actually went on a little trip to eliminate the founders a while back? It seems as if the Dominion had a real axe to grind against the Federation.
Dominion vs Federation
- Thread starter nahuatl
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Plus, the Feds and their allies the Klingons were the main players known to have invaded through the wormhole. Romulans and Cardassians stayed out for the most part, it seems, save for their little genocidal sortie. And for that, they were already voted the species most likely to go extinct at the end of the war (but they were useful until then).
Romulans at Gamma acted as if they were intruding into enemy territory. Feds traipsed there as if it belonged to them - a much more serious threat to Dominion rule, both militarily and in political-psychological terms. One invasion fleet here or there, that the Jem'hadar can deal with. But UFP envoys signing local treaties, dishing out all sorts of help and gifts, telling about life outside the Dominion... That was a mortal threat.
Timo Saloniemi
Romulans at Gamma acted as if they were intruding into enemy territory. Feds traipsed there as if it belonged to them - a much more serious threat to Dominion rule, both militarily and in political-psychological terms. One invasion fleet here or there, that the Jem'hadar can deal with. But UFP envoys signing local treaties, dishing out all sorts of help and gifts, telling about life outside the Dominion... That was a mortal threat.
Timo Saloniemi
Well, I'll repost what I said in the other thread where you asked the question: I think it was mostly a matter of ideology. The writers have often commented how the Dominion is in a sense an Anti-Federation, so I guess that also means the Founders view the Federation as an Anti-Dominion, a proof that you can bring a great number of different species together peacefully, and not by conquest.
I believe that the Federation is vastly more powerful than the others, and that due to its political structure it was more vulnerable to diplomacy on its peripheries than any of the more unitary and aggressive states.
However, like others have said, the hard-on for the UFP's destruction comes from the reason they were most powerful. They hated the Federation for their freedom.
However, like others have said, the hard-on for the UFP's destruction comes from the reason they were most powerful. They hated the Federation for their freedom.
They hated the Federation for their freedom.
Exactly, the Romulans, Cardassians, and Klingons were a lot more like the Dominion in that they all forged empires through fear and military power. That was something the Dominion realized it could use for its benefit. The Federation, on the other hand, was able to build a powerful state, with the most powerful regional military, through peace and trust.
The Romulans only turned on the Dominion because they believed it was in their best interest to do so. The Cardassians only allied with the Dominion because they thought that was in their best interests. The Klingons temporarily turned on the Federation because the Dominion tricked them into believing that was to their benefit; then they re-allied with the Federation when the truth was revealed and it was once again beneficial to be allies. The Federation, however, was opposed to the Dominion at the deepest level possible, an ideological one.
The Dominion couldn't manipulate the UFP like it could the other great Alpha Quadrant powers. Therefore, they were the greatest threat and had to be destroyed.
How could the Federation get into the war if the Dominion was attacking and defeating the other Alpha powers? Sure, the Dominion could have attacked the Klingon Empire so the treaty could have brought in the Federation into the war. Anyway, that theory just makes the Federation looking like it is kicking and screaming to stay out of the war.
Anyway, was it not the Federation that really started the war? Think the Dominion was just willing to build up their fleet and produce more clones to have a bigger and larger fleet.
Anyway, was it not the Federation that really started the war? Think the Dominion was just willing to build up their fleet and produce more clones to have a bigger and larger fleet.
Because whatever happens close to Federation space is a Federation concern, just as it is with anyone else. Think in modern terms and how allies of, say, the US get attacked. The US will respond, even though most conflicts are far from US borders.
But as each Alpha power was being manipulated in some way by the Dominion, the Federation became more and more concerned, and rightfully so. Even if the Dominion went after the Klingons, the Federation wouldn't be far behind. And no nation ever wants to get stuck in an underdog position, where there are no allies left.
...which normally leads to war anyway. What else are you going to do when you have an enormous fleet with a monstrous army and firepower rarely seen in the galaxy? Real world examples include forces like Iran and North Korea, whose weapon and military build-ups have been a cause for all their neighbors and the world's major powers for some time now.
I think now I'm starting to get a better a idea of the Dominion's motives. I see the Federation as the linchpin of the Alpha-Quadrant and once they were neutralized the rest of AQ would would be easy pickings. I also read somewhere that the Dominion has been aware of the Federation's existence for a very long time and weren't planning on engaging the Federation for another 200 years when warp methods became more advanced, but the wormhole messed up their timetable. If that is true I wonder why it never made it on screen? I think it explains the Dominion's scrambling to deal with the Federation.
The idea that the Dominion was aware of the Federation and was laying plans to deal with them centuries down the road was something the producers had in mind from the beginning. For some reason, they never put it on screen in any shape or form.
I've never seen, read, or heard of any reason why they didn't. Most likely they simply had other, more pressing, things to deal with storywise and this was pushed to the back burner time and time again until it was too late.
I've never seen, read, or heard of any reason why they didn't. Most likely they simply had other, more pressing, things to deal with storywise and this was pushed to the back burner time and time again until it was too late.
This is a huge missed opportunity, IMHO. If I recall correctly, the writers had a concept that the Dominion was aware of the Federation, and had a plan they were working on for dealing with it, but didn't expect that to happen for 300 some-odd years, when the Federation's sphere of influence and radius of exploration would begin to bump up against Dominion territory. The discovery of the wormhole brought the Federation and the Dominion into contact far earlier than had been anticipated, forcing the Dominion to respond somewhat reflexively, and with not quite so much overwhelming force as they might have liked.
Scary to consider that the Dominion, caught off guard and scraping together what they could, were still almost able to drive the UFP off a cliff.
What we saw on screen suggested that everything the Dominion knew about Alpha affairs was thanks to the wormhole. They had a lead time of a couple of years, apparently, because until "Jem'Hadar" they had been "investigating" all sorts of Alpha vessels that had sailed to Gamma whereas no Dominion vessels had come to Alpha (or then at least none had been caught doing so). But they didn't have a lead time of centuries.
Doesn't mean they wouldn't have had a standard plan by which they would conquer all the powerful adversary empires they might run into - a plan that would take centuries to execute. And doesn't mean that their achievements in the war weren't impressive. It's comparable to the British (Canadians) landing in Dieppe in 1942 with their 6,000 men and 58 tanks and then proceeding to almost conquer both Hitler's and Stalin's vast nations while remaining cut off from all support from Britain because Poseidon had decided to raise a perpetual storm in the Channel... Really, they might not have a need for any centuries-long plans when they could simply bludgeon the enemy into submission like that.
Timo Saloniemi
Doesn't mean they wouldn't have had a standard plan by which they would conquer all the powerful adversary empires they might run into - a plan that would take centuries to execute. And doesn't mean that their achievements in the war weren't impressive. It's comparable to the British (Canadians) landing in Dieppe in 1942 with their 6,000 men and 58 tanks and then proceeding to almost conquer both Hitler's and Stalin's vast nations while remaining cut off from all support from Britain because Poseidon had decided to raise a perpetual storm in the Channel... Really, they might not have a need for any centuries-long plans when they could simply bludgeon the enemy into submission like that.
Timo Saloniemi
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