Earth Federation (Gundam)

The Earth Federation (地球連邦) is a fictional organization in the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam anime series.

Organization
The Earth Federation's heraldry is a golden or white northstar, similar to that of NATO, over a horizontally lying crescent, forming an anchor-like symbol.

The Federation is loosely based on the United Nations, with a Security Council and General Assembly, but is not a successor to that organization. During times of war the Earth Federation is controlled by its military, in times of peace by civilians (as seen in 0083). It is a global government that was formed by a 'rich mans' club' of wealthy nations. In Gundam, no individual nations are mentioned or continue to exist. Places are mentioned by what landmass or region they are in, such as New York City (or New Yark, according to on-screen text). While Japan, Australia, and Ireland are mentioned, these names refer to the landmasses and not the former countries. The only exception to this is the language and nationality of characters, which can be interpreted to be based on their predecessors' former homeland before emigrating to the space colonies.

The Federation military headquarters was a secret, underground complex located at Jaburo, deep in the Amazon jungle. It was located underground for protection against Zeon attacks.

The Federation maintained a military academy at Nijmegen.

The Earth Federation Assembly, as seen in Zeta Gundam, was located in Dakar.

Until U.C. 0093, the Earth Federation Capital was located in Lhasa.

History
The Earth Federation was formed in the pre-Universal Century (i.e. the 20th Century), when overpopulation began causing famines, outbreaks of disease, and wars over living space, food, and resources.

Space colonization
In order to relieve Earth of the burden and allow it to heal, the Earth Federation announced the Space Colonization Plan. The Earth Federation began the construction of orbital habitats, based on the designs and research of Gerard K. O'Neill, and located in the Earth-Lunar Lagrangian Points. The colonies, called Bunches (possibly due to the ballistic pairing of the colony cylinders) were then organized into administrative sectors called Sides. While most of the human population was forced to relocate to the colonies as part of the Space Colonization Plan, the wealthy and influential members were able to remain on Earth. This gave rise to the popular image of the Earth Federation as "Earth-Born Elite", living comfortably on Earth while the ordinary populace, for the most part, has been forced to live in space.

In order to maintain and satisfy energy concerns, the Earth Federation launches Solar Power Station Satellites, which broadcast energy to power stations on the ground. In addition, the Federation also launched the Jupiter Energy Fleet, which collect helium-3, hydrogen and methane from the upper atmosphere of the gas giant.

One Year War
The One Year War was a year-long, full-scale conflict between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon, who declared war upon the Federation under the name of independence. The war was ultimately won by the Earth Federation at a heavy cost. The Republic of Zeon was re-established and the Zeon army was disbanded. However, for many years on, several terrorist incidents were perpetrated by remnant Zeon loyalists, most famously the Operation Stardust by the Delaz Fleet.

Gryps Conflict
The Gryps Conflict was a full-scale civil war between the Titans, an elite Federation counter-insurgency task force, and the anti-Titans AEUG/Karaba alliance. The war was brewing during the mid-U.C. 0080s when the Titans massacred the civilian population of the Side 1's 30 Bunch colony with G3 nerve gas to suppress demonstrations against Federation policies. It fully erupted after AEUG launched surprise attacks on Side 7's Green Noa 2 (later renamed Gryps) colony and stole three RX-178 Gundam Mk-II prototypes. The war was tactically won by the AEUG forces, although the true winner was actually the Axis forces. The conflict resulted in the total destruction of the Titans space fleet and huge loss from the AEUG side (30% of the Federation's total fleet at the time).

First Neo Zeon movement
During the first Neo Zeon movement, the Earth Federation was severely weakened by the loss of the Titans and relied primarily on AEUG to fight their battle until they could put together a military resistance. Meanwhile the civilian side of the Earth Federation cowed toward the newly formed Neo Zeon believing they could appease them. In the end, the Earth Federation won the war by default because the Neo Zeon forces exhausted themselves fighting a civil war.

Second Neo Zeon movement
By the time of the second Neo Zeon movement, the Earth Federation had regained their military strength but lacked any political courage to fight it. Though the EF military saw the need to fight (mainly Londo Bell forces), the civilians side of the EF lacked the resolve to fight and sought to negotiate with the with Neo Zeon. In the end it ended up hurting the EF because Neo Zeon used this weakness to attack the Earth directly but was thwarted by Londo Bell.

Decline
After the end of the second Neo Zeon movement, the Earth Federation was once again put in civilian hands. During the years that followed the EF ignored most conflicts in its colonies believing it nothing more than terrorist acts and small fights. With their train of thought the EF stopped putting money into its military and its weapons and let their technology decline. By U.C. 122 the Earth Federations military had become technologically inferior to the space forces of rogue movements such as the Crossbone Vanguard who tried to take over several colonies in U.C. 123. By U.C. 153 the earth Federation was severely weakened both militarily and political to the point were they could not fight and relied on militia units such as in the Zanscare conflict. The EF won by good fortune and it would be the final nail in the coffin for the declining power. In the early parts of U.C. 200 the EF had succumbed to outside conflicts and internal conflicts and by U.C. 223 the EF had collapsed and was succeeded by CONSENT: (Congress of Settlement Nations).

Military
The Earth Federation forces were organized under the moniker Earth Federation Forces (地球連邦軍), to enforce Federation edicts. The Earth Federation Forces were organized into two groups - an Earth-based military force, which handled all military matters on ground, sea, and in Earth atmosphere, and a space military branch, the Earth Federation Space Forces or EFSF. However, in Gundam 0080 and Gundam 0083, this force was referred to as UNT Spacy, but EFSF is currently the official moniker.

Originally, the naming in the 1980s used United Nations Troops (U.N.T.) and is referred to UNT army, UNT grand(first a typo of ground, later the term was used for an army-navy joint forces) This naming convention is used in Japan until 1999. This is due to the release of the model, Perfect Grade RX-78-2 Gundam. All naming was changed from UNT to EF and UNT forces have been changed to EF Forces. The Japanese publications had since then renamed all of the wordings to the current naming convention. The acronym U.N.T. have been retcon to Under Normal Tactical to prevent confusion in anime series and older model kits. The reason for changing is unknown, but the naming convention is the same as the Macross series and there might be a conflict in getting an America copyright even though the Gundam series aired before the Macross series in Japan but later than the Macross series (known as Robotech) in America.

Until U.C. 0087, the military central command for the Earth Federation Forces was located at a base called Jaburo (or Jabrow), located under the Amazon river. During the One Year War, the base was the target of many attacks by the Principality of Zeon, including the Operation British colony drop and a decisive battle at which the remaining bulk of Zeon's Earth Attack Force made their final attempt to destroy Jaburo. Throughout the Universal Century the Earth Federation Space Force operated from their headquarters at Luna II.

Earth Federation Ground Force (EFGF)
The Ground Force was the poorest equipped of all the EFF branches; it possessed outdated weaponry and training techniques. The Ground was caught completely by surprise when the Zeon launched their drop operation for control of the earth and subsequently spent most of the time between February and August U.C. 0079 in disarray and retreat. The addition of mobile suits did much to help out the Earth Federation Ground Force, and in the post war years the Ground Force became a force to be feared.

Earth Federation Naval Force (EFNF)
The Naval Force was a major power in the Earth Federation, and possessed several bases on the coast of California, collectively known as the California base. The Federation's navy took heavy casualties following the failed colony drop, and when the Zeon seized the California Base in the Earth invasion (during the One Year War) they converted the facilities to build Zeon submarines. Although the California Base was recaptured by Federation Forces in the dying weeks of the One Year war, the Federation never really regained control of the seas. Ships in the Federation's navy include gunboats, which appeared in The 08th MS Team and an aircraft carrier, but the total number of ships and their types is not known.

Naval officers were the best trained soldiers in the Earth Federation at the dawn of the space colonization era, and hence would become the model that the Earth Federation would turn to when they created the Earth Federation Space Force. The Navy includes the Earth Federation Marine Corps.

Earth Federation Air Force
Not much is known about the Earth Federation's air force, other than the facts that they do exist and did participate in several ground campaigns. The group has several powerful bombers created from core booster pieces left over from the vision project. However, those pieces of equipment were rare. The EFAF's aircraft were outdated and are not adapted to combats under the influence of Minovsky particles. The EFAF planes do not have enough firepower to destroy mobile suits due to the guided missiles became useless under Minovsky particles but at the same time, mobile suits can hardly shoot down fast flying planes and thus the EFAF seldom encountered Mobile Suits. Their main mission during the One Year War is to intercept Zeon atmospheric entry vehicles with their High altitude fighter FF-3 Sabrefish. (an atmospheric version of the FF-S3 Sabrefish which was used by the EFSF.) During the course of the One Year War, many EFAF pilots ended up becoming Mobile Suit pilots.

Earth Federation Space Force
The fourth branch of the Earth Federation Forces was the Earth Federation Space Force. This branch was created to enforce the edicts of the Earth Federation Government in space, as such this branch of the armed service is almost exclusively concerned with space combat. Before the One Year War this branch is listed under the above branches and was commanded by generals appointed by those three. For example, the Commander-in-chief during the One Year War, General Revil, was a Lieutenant General or Chujo of the EF Army. The Federation's Space Force is a mirror image of the "Big Gun" ship philosophy, embodying powerful guns to destroy enemies. This began to change in U.C. 0079, when the Zeon introduced their mobile suits, which thoroughly decimated the Federation's Space Force during the Battle of Loum. The advent of the mobile suit forced the Federation to develop their own mobile suits and ships that could carry them, resulting in the Pegasus-class MS carriers. After Zeon remnants successfully executed Operation Stardust, the Federation's Space Force finally abandoned the "Big Gun" ship concept and focused on making ships that were capable of carrying mobile suits.

A handful of the Earth Federation Space Force ships were designed to withstand atmospheric re-entry and to operate on Earth via Minovsky Craft System; these ships were primarily from the Pegasus-class.

In other Gundam timelines
The Japanese term for the Earth Federation made a reappearance in After War Gundam X and Mobile Suit Gundam 00. However, it is translated as "United Nations Earth" and "Earth Sphere Federation", respectively. It also makes an appearance in Mobile Suit Gundam AGE with similar iconography to its Universal Century counterpart.

Cultural significance
The military outfit of the Earth Federation Forces was used on a Japanese poster to encourage voters to vote on 29/7/2007's election.