For what it's worth - which isn't much - Memory Alpha lists four founding members of the Coalition of planets, adding "several more" by 2267, when the name was changed to the Federation; the actual membership at the time of this movie was not necessarily large.
What the
hell are you talking about? The Federation was founded in 2161, and its name was
not "the Coalition of Planets" at first.
Starfleet grew out of UESPA - United Earth Space Probe Agency. It was actually identified as such in the early TOS series, until they settled into the "Starfleet" designation. Naturally these ships would have a heavy Terran billeting.
That's a matter of the early TOS episodes being written before the writers created the Federation and Starfleet. The
Enterprise was described as a "United Earth" ship in "The Corbomite Maneuver," for instance. There's never been anything established about whether or not the Federation Starfleet developed out of UESPA.
The ENT episode "Demons" featured a United Earth Starfleet seal that included the phrase "United Earth Space Probe Agency," suggesting that the UE Starfleet was a division of UESPA in the United Earth government. But that doesn't tell us anything about the
Federation Starfleet, which is as much a separate agency from the United Earth Starfleet as the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is a separate agency from the Scottish Royal Navy, or as the United States Navy is a separate agency from the Massachusetts State Navy.
We should probably disregard the references to UESPA and United Earth in early TOS and treat the introduction of the United Federation of Planets and the Federation Starfleet in later TOS episodes as what they were:
Retcons. Just pretend Kirk said "Starfleet" or "the Federation."
My take is each member world of the federation has its own outer space agency. Starfleet is Earth's space agency, that is why most of the members are human.
It's not. It's been explicitly described as the
Federation Starfleet throughout the TOS-VOY eras. Only in ENT was it a United Earth agency -- but, then, the fact that the ENT agency shared a name with the TOS one means nothing. After all, the Massachusetts State Navy is not the same agency as the United States Navy just because they both share the name "Navy."
The main qualification for joining the federation is the ability to create a warp drive.
No. That's the main qualification for the Federation to
contact you. It's
a qualification for Federation Membership, but not the main one. And, frankly, I'd be surprised if its absence would prevent a culture such as, say, the Ba'ku from becoming Federation Members. If they are aware of alien life, are politically unified, and adhere to the basic egalitarian and libertarian principles of the Federation, why would a lack of warp drive stop them from being members?
Memory Alpha has a
nice summary of the qualifications for Federation Membership:
Admittance into the Federation was either by invitation or successful petition of a world or civilization desirous of joining. In the second case, membership was granted only upon satisfaction of certain requirements. Firstly, the government of the prospective member submitted an official petition to the Federation Council, outlining its desire to join. A lengthy, thorough investigation of the prospective member's culture followed. This investigation could take several years, and was done to ascertain whether or not the culture genuinely shared the values of the Federation: values of benevolence, peaceful co-existence and co-operation, the rule of law, and equal rights and justice. (DS9: "Rapture"; TNG: "The Measure Of A Man", "Attached") For example, the discovery on the petitioning planet, Angosia III, of enhanced soldiers being unjustly indefinitely imprisoned without treatment in times of peace was considered unacceptable in Captain Jean-Luc Picard's official evaluation of the planet for the Federation. (TNG: "The Hunted")
Even before the investigation, the prospective member had to meet certain requirements. These were as follows:
* It had to have an "advanced level of technology." The Federation's baseline definition of this term was the capability for faster-than-light space travel. (TNG: "First Contact")
* Its government had to have achieved stable planetary political unity, respecting the rights of the individual. (TNG: "The Hunted", "Attached")
* No form of caste discrimination was to be practiced. (DS9: "Accession")
Earth was one of the founding members of the federation, so it's reasonable to assume Earth technology is the most advanced;
1. Earth was the
least technologically advanced world amongst the Federation's founding member worlds of Earth, Vulcan, Andor, and Tellar. Earth had been in the "warp club" for less than 100 years, whilst the others had been interstellar powers for centuries.
2. The distinction between "Earth technology" and "Vulcan" or "Andorian" technology probably disappeared after the founding of the Federation. Political unity necessarily means that the technologies of the Federation Member worlds would be shared. It would be as meaningless to talk of "Earth technology" in the UFP as it would be to talk of "Virginia technology" in the United States or "Bavarian technology" in Germany.
I don't think so. Enterprise clearly stated Earth was waaay behing Vulcans, Andorians and pretty much everybody they met. I think part of the treaty included sharing technology which is how the Federation and Starfllet became a power in the quadrant.
In the beginning Earth tech was behind Vulcan, but by the 23rd century Earth surpassed them.
There is no evidence of that. And, indeed, why would it surpass them, when they're part of the same interstellar state? That's like saying that Ontario technology is more advanced than Quebec technology.
The Federation is the Federal level of gouvernment of the member worlds and Starfleet is it's military branch.
Starfleet is only one of its military branches. There are many others.
The United States is a federation and each state has its own state defense force.
It's fair to argue that the Federation Member States may retain their own space forces, but it's been very firmly established that Starfleet is the
Federation Starfleet. Ohio may have the Ohio Army National Guard, but that doesn't make the United States Army part of the Ohio militia; the Ohio Army National Guard goes to Ohio, and the US Army goes to the US as a whole.
Starfleet is only one of its military branches.
And where was Vulcan's when it was getting attacked?
Presumably it was as torn to shit as the Starfleet fleet was.
Starfleet is the Earth (human) space organization.
No.
Starfleet exsisted before The Federation.
Ergo..
The United Earth Starfleet existed before the Federation. It is not at all clear that the UE Starfleet is the same agency as the organization explicitly referred to as the Federation Starfleet in the other shows.
Again: The Massachusetts State Navy existed before the United States. It does not follow that the United States Navy must be the same agency just because they both share the name "navy."
Honestly, though, look how the Vulcan Council frowned upon young Spock for deciding to join Starfleet.
The Vulcan High Council -- it was referred to as the "High Council" in the film and described as a cultural agency; the Vulcan Council was established to be the governing body of the post-V'Las Vulcan in ENT's "These Are the Voyages..." -- was probably saying that mostly because they were pissed he turned them down. Apparently being accepted into the Vulcan Science Academy, over which they had jurisdiction, is a high honor that's never been turned down before. There were probably many thousands of Vulcans in Starfleet -- but none who had been accepted into the Science Academy.
If there were multiple Starfleet campuses on various worlds, we would likely see more aliens in Starfleet, but since the Academy is on Earth, it just makes sense that there will be a lot more humans.
The TNG episode "Eye of the Beholder" established that Starfleet Academy has branch campuses on other planets, including Beta Aquilae II, Beta Ursae Minor II, and Psi Upsilon III. Presumably, there's a branch campus on Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, and the other major Federation worlds -- and presumably, their cadets are predominantly of the species native to that world.
I don't think we can infer that the UFP Starfleet is mostly Human-dominated. We've seen exactly four bases or ships up close. It's possible that Starfleet practices
de facto species segregation, for instance, and that we've only seen the Human-dominated ships and bases.
That interpretation always seriously bothered me; the U.N. depends way too much on the U.S. military for enforcement of its edicts, which basically means the U.S. gets to use the United Nations as a bully pulpit whenever it doesn't get its way. I kind of expected that the Federation would be better than this, with different members having a much more equal footing based on cooperation and mutual interest; not the U.N., but more like the E.U.
In which case, Starfleet would probably be the equivalent of the French Navy: they're not the "European Navy" as such, but they just happen to have some of the biggest and most advanced ships and planes and therefore get alot of press. You might as well ask "How come the French Navy is dominated by the French?"
I agree that it's not accurate to compare the Federation to the United Nations, but it's also not accurate to compare the Federation to the European Union.
The United Nations, simply put, is not a state. It does not have a government, it does not possess sovereignty, it cannot make binding law, and it does not possess a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. It is an intergovernmental organization (IGO) created for the launching of joint ventures and to provide a neutral forum for the resolution of inter-state disputes.
The European Union, on the other hand, is not a state, either. It is an alliance of sovereign states which has been delegated, by its member states, some of the functions of a sovereign state. Nonetheless, it remains an institution that lacks sovereignty in it self, as evidenced most clearly by the fact that it lacks its own military. It's a unique alliance, and it may evolve into a state in its own right, but it is not a state yet.
The Federation, on the other hand, is a state. It possesses all of the legal traits of a state, including possessing a territory over which it exercises sovereignty, the ability to conduct relations with other sovereign states without seeking the consent of its member states (
Star Trek VI), the ability to declare and wage war (DS9's Dominion War, TOS's "Errand of Mercy"), the ability to declare martial law over its member states (DS9: "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost"), the ability to make binding law throughout the UFP (TNG: "Force of Nature"'s warp-5 speed limit), the possession of its own court system (DS9: "Dr. Bashir, I Presume?" established the Federation Supreme Court, and DS9's "The Ascent" established the existence of Federation grand juries), the ability to legally use force to enforce the law over its citizenry (DS9: "Let He Who Is Without Sin..."), and the use of its own military force (the Federation Starfleet -- established as such every time characters called their ships "the Federation Starship
Whatevername").
While the Federation is probably looser than present-day federations like the United States, Germany, Canada, or Australia -- as evidenced by the fact that Federation Member States apparently still exchanged ambassadors between one-another at least into the 23rd Century (Sarek) -- the fact remains that the Federation possesses more of the legal traits of a state than of an alliance or an IGO.
ETA:
By my reckoning, the new movie did a better job at portraying a diverse Starfleet than almost any other ST installment save TMP. We saw Orions, Vulcans, and numerous unnamed aliens, and we were given no indication that they had any different legal status than Humans.
