If the Federation had peacefully joined the Dominion, how many things would have changed?

Thank you, now I'm wondering how the Dominion would have dealt with that house and lifeform that peskily refused to stay dead, even after multiple orbital bombardments and verified total destruction (or more in general, an element that is very clearly beyond any means of control they have).

 

I think in general this would mean the AQ would slowly merge with the GQ as one entity.

The federation would likely have to give up a great deal of political freedom, though I don’t think the Dominion would have made people’s lives harder or less comfortable.

I expect the federation would be allowed some autonomy so long as they didn’t oppose the dominion.

 

I don't know, I'd imagine if they wanted anything - a planet's resources or something - they'd take it with no concern for how that would affect the local populations or species. Given what they did to the Tosk, I'd imagine something similar might happen to the Klingons, or they'd be used for training etc. If the Dominion thought they were powerful enough to take the entire Alpha and Beta quadrants they may also see no reason to preserve species like the Ferengi.

 

If the Federation had ‘joined’ the Doninion, then the Federation would no longer exist. There would just be this group of races that gave in to Dominion demands

 

Maybe, but how much of their lives would change for the ordinary ex-federation citizens in this case?

 

You're not likely to be shot on sight by a random Starfleet officer who, due to circumstances possibly beyond his or her control, didn't have food for a couple days.

Or you hear the words "Obedience brings victory" as you fall to the ground with a phaser wound in your chest.

 

Dunno. If the Dominion treats the planets of the Federation the same way as its possessions in the GQ, there wouldn't be a lot of patroling Jem' Hadar on most of them. They are apparently only active in cases of trouble.

But there would maybe be a lot of Vortas and cloning facilities for both Dominion species in Fed space.

 

Honestly, we don't know enough of the day to day happenings on Dominion worlds to be certain of that. Hell, we barely scratched the surface on the day to day happenings of Federation worlds for a decent comparison. We only have how Starfleet essentially behaves as a guide to how people and worlds are treated, which seems to be a damn sight better than the Dominion.

Ironically, dialogue from "TO THE DEATH" actually gives me the best gauge on how the Dominion treats its worlds. Virak'kara tells Dax that very few Jem'Hadar reach 20 years old, and are considered 'honored elders'. Even Klingons, who are a warrior species and look for ways to die gloriously in battle, live MUCH longer than that... even taking into account they have childhoods while the Jem'Hadar are fully grown in a few days. The Dominion clearly have a lot of cloning facilities for creating Jem'Hadar, and Vorta.

Given how effective Jem'Hadar fighters are, why would the Dominion need so many of them? Short of being at war at all times with someone in the Gamma Quadrant, which there was no indication of that, the only other reason I can think of is they are also used in maintaing order on all their worlds. Their space seems fairly large, so that means having a massive army.

So why do the Jem'Hadar have such short life spans? Best answer: they die from quelling rebellions and constantly taking other worlds.

I am curious to see how long a typical Vorta lasts. If Weyoun is any indication, their clones die even more quickly than their Jem'Hadar soldiers.

One other note: if the Dominion worlds are left relatively alone, I would think there would be many more Vorta around to serve as administrators and negotiators.

 

I always thought that the high death rate of the Jemmies was mostly caused by a constant military expansion of the Dominion in the GQ, not so much from holding member planets in line. Some might die from this too, but i guess most die in invasions and wars of conquest.

 

To quote Captain Kirk, "Conquest is easy. Control is not."

Even Weyoun acknowledged this to Dukat when he said holding onto a prize as vast as the Federation isn't going to be easy.

This also tells me the Jem'Hadar suffer just as many deaths from guerilla warfare as they do invading territory.

 

You have a good point here. But this scenario isn't about a military occupation by the Dominion but what would have happened to the planets and populations of the Federation in the case that the UFP more or less voluntarily joined them.

So if what we saw on the planets of the Gamma Quadrant and especially what we learnt about the Karemma holds true, the Dominion wouldn't have subjugated their new member planets. At least initially. What happens later is another issue, based on if there are rebellions and resistance to the new order of things...

So my question is about what would life be like on ex-federation planets in the case there isn't any resistance or rebellion, or at least before something like that happens?

 

I imagine it would depend.

The Dominion would likely install garrisons on the former federation core world’s and those would remain for a long time.

I suspect that barring grandstanders like dukat in charge-the policy would have been “we won’t disrupt your day to day life, but cause trouble and you will regret it”.

The dominion wants order. So long as it’s subjects don’t cause trouble, they don’t care.

Rebellions and insurgency however are not tolerated.

 

As a side note, the UFP joining the Dominion voluntarily (whatever that means exactly) still doesn't necessarily mean all its citizens agree with that. What if there were a small, but very vocal minority (say, 5% of the population) that openly opposes it, and a fraction of that 5% is willing to engage in action? Wouldn't the Dominion still take disciplinary action against those planets even if 95% had become loyal Dominion subjects?

 

So basically nothing would change at all for most citizens on Earth and their way of life, beside of seeing regularly Jem'Hadar patrols on the streets and Dominion propaganda instead of the FNN?

 

Probably. The Dominion would likely intern or just flat out murder people it deemed to be the likely nuclei of any insurgency or rebellion-Section 31 officers, certain Starfleet captains, politicians etc...

But the average citizen likely would only see Jem'Hadar patrols. Higher ups in the government would probably have to interact with Vorta on a regular basis, but beyond that?

Nothing would change for the bulk of people's lives.

 

I see life under Dominion rule being brutal for the Federation, esp. Earth. I think people mistakenly assume the Dominion would be sort of benevolent tyrants based on what went on with the Karemma. But the Federation is an enemy power with a political philosophy that is totally opposite of the Dominion.

Don't forget, Weyoun wanted to eradicate Earth all together because they felt that would be the center of any resistance.

I think had the Federation surrendered the first thing that would happen is the existing Federation leaders would be imprisoned or even executed. Vorta would take over as governors of individual worlds and they would probably seek collaborators who would do what they were told to run administrative functions on the world. Starfleet would be eliminated and the Jem'Hadar would take care of the military. All the scientific and research functions of Starfleet would end unless it was a program that could benefit the Dominion.

Then I'd see the former Federation being much like how things were in the Soviet Union after the Stalin years. The day to day citizens would be kept in a bare sustenance level, just enough to survive, but weak enough that they would be unable to rise up en masse. Medical care, food, housing would be at poverty levels. The Dominion would take anything else of value either for their own use or just to keep the population low. And laws would be brutal with execution being used as a major deterrent to most crimes.

There was a good reason surrender was never an option.

 

^ In fact we have a clear example of a species that peacefully joined the Dominion. The Cardassians. Let's see how they got treated. The Dominion initially probably gave them some help with those convoys, but most likely only to strengthen their own position and foothold in the quadrant. Then, it seems, the Dominion squeezed the world like an orange for any resources that could help in the war, probably without regard for the civilian population. And the moment Cardassia started to give any trouble, they had no qualms in first "punishing" the species by obliterating cities, and later even giving the order to eradicate the entire population.

Now, this was in a war, but still I doubt Earth would get a much better treatment. And if they would consider Earth a danger (which apparently they did) treatment would be worse still.

 

Yeah, that's a very plausible scenario for what would have happened if the Federation lost the Dominion War.

But in the case the Federation "voluntarily" joined the Dominion before the war, i would guess they would get a far better treatment. At least for some time...

 

Everything would have changed and there would have been nothing peaceful about it. Even if you ignore the disdain the Founders had for humanoids, all you have to do to see what conforming to the Dominion looked like is to consider the Vorta and Jem’Hadar.

 

At first, anyway. But joining the Dominion voluntarily didn't go too well for Cardasia. Expect the Dominion to require Starfleet to aid in the Dominion's control of the Alpha Quadrant.