Why Didn't the Cardassians and Ferengi Make First Contact Earlier?

[Nerys Myk]

Yes, the Ferengi never refer to themselves by name in Acquisition, which is in keeping with them being secretive as shown in the Last Outpost. Remember, the Ferengi weren't unheard of, just unseen. The Federation had no problem identifying Ferengi ships and had a good grasp of Ferengi society, it's just that no one had actually seen an alien calling themselves "Ferengi", Once they had a face to go with the name, I imagine several encounters with "unknown aliens" were retroactively attributed to the Ferengi.

 

[Timo]

...And that many of the older encounters with the Ferengi had ended with the eyewitnesses being eliminated. We don't know what would have happened to Picard's team iin "The Last Outpost" if the planet below hadn't interfered; Picard had defeated a prepared Ferengi ship once, but his luck might have run out this time.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JRoss]

All f the writers forgot that the Cardassians were actually not a warrior culture until recent times. Didn't Picard say either 50 or 100 years under a militant government in The Wounded?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Didn't the Ferengi make contact with Earth in 1947?

 

[Timo]

All f the writers forgot that the Cardassians were actually not a warrior culture until recent times. Didn't Picard say either 50 or 100 years under a militant government in The Wounded?

Not in "The Wounded". And there aren't clear timing cues in other episodes, either. "Defiant" establishes the triumvirate government as being successful for 500 years and perhaps existing before that already; "Chain of Command" establishes misery on Cardassia 200 years prior to the episode, and supposedly ongoing; occupation of Bajor is a recent thing but we never learn exactly how recent. Conquests predating Bajor are not specified, nor ones postdating it for that matter. For all we know, Cardassians may have been a warrior culture since the first one learned to hold a rock with the pointy end forward, or then became one when learning starflight.

Timo Saloniemi